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Fire On Board!

Heroes Remember

Fire On Board!

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Transcript
The worst night I guess was when we had to come back with an engine on fire and we crash landed. We took off, again, an old airplane. So I'm sittin'at the radio and there's a little window here that you could look at the engine. All of a sudden I heard a sort of a small bang you know and I thought "Well there's nobody, we're not getting shot at." We hadn't been out very long, we weren't even in an area where you would get shot at, as yet. Sparks coming out of the engine, so I mentioned it to the pilot. He said, "Keep an eye on it." Next time there was a few more sparks. The third time there was a bang and I looked out and we got flame. So I said, "Fire." And he just turned it around and headed for home. He couldn't put down the wheels or the flaps to slow down because it was the port engine and that one handled the hydraulics for the wheels and the flaps. And we came down with this thing on fire and we did a belly landing. There's a little, the radio was right behind the pilot where I was sitting between me and the cockpit, there was the two pilots. There's a little plywood door about that wide and oh about five feet, a little over five feet high. I don't know to this day whether I walked through that door or tore it off the hinges, but the next thing I know I was between the pilot, I got out with the way the pilot did, an escape hatch above his seat. I was between his legs and he was sitting there ready to jump and he patted me on top of the head and he said, "Me first, Len." The rest of the crew would get out through the astrodome. They all got out. We were running away from the airplane. We had four depth charges on which were 250 pounds a piece, 3000 rounds of ammunition and we had flares, we had Very Cartridge pistol and flares. And it looked like the 4th of July by the time we got away from the airplane eh. Meanwhile it's burning. And one of the guys glanced around and we all stopped dead. Firemen were trying to put the fire out and we yelled, "Depth charges." of course but the ammunition going off and the Very cartridge flares, red green whatever flying through, wouldn't hear us. The reason the fireman went out to do that, and this was oh early morning, you know, it was still dark, pitch black. The day before, or two days before, one of these, still old airplanes, had lost an engine and they crash landed. And when they crash landed the engine caught fire because as I say it's, everything would come back, and you were looking at fabric and in the shell the minute gas goes and a little spark, "Boom." They cut the tail off of that airplane on the runway while the front end was burning. It wasn't bombed up yet. This was one thing that saved them. But they cut the tail off of that airplane to save the turret and part of the airplane and they could weld it together on another airplane. They tried to do the same thing that night but it was too far gone and there was too much ammunition on board. So they couldn't do it. The chap, the fireman, it blasted cleaned all his clothes off and he was pock marked all over with shrapnel. He died just before we left the hospital. They checked us out but we were all right. So we were flying again that night. That's what they do. When you have a bad crash they don't let you sit around think of it. They get you right back into the aircraft. That morning we came back. The breaks failed on the aircraft we had. We're heading for a hundred foot drop at the end of the runway at this stone quarry. So the pilot says, "Here we go again." And he hauled the thing around in what we call a ground loop, so you ruin the propeller, you ruin a wheel and smash up a wing. So the six of us got out and pissed on that aircraft! Broad daylight, who cares. About seven or eight o'clock in the morning, who cares. You know, those were some of the good things.
Description

Mr. Doiron remembers his worst flight out of Malta; the plane caught fire and they had to crash land.

Leonard Doiron

Mr. Doiron was born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island on January 21st 1923. His father worked in wholesale and retail until he was injured and opened his own shoe repair shop. Mr. Doiron joined the Air Force on February 15th 1941 where he began his training in Chatham, New Brunswick. In June 1941 he was sent to Initial Training School in Victoriaville, Québec. Mr. Doiron was part of the top 10 aspiring pilots and was picked to become one. He was later sent back to Chatham where he was washed out for inconsistent flying. The RAFFC (Royal Air Force Ferry Command) noticed his Morse code abilities and had him transferred to Dorval, Québec. He was then stationed in Bournemouth, England. He did his Operational Training in Northern Ireland where he was assigned to a Wellington air plane crew. He flew many missions over the Gulf of Toranto (Italy) - about 300 hours of Operational Flying Time and was promoted to Warrant Officer Class 1. He then went to Cairo, Egypt and to Palestine for a short time before being sent back home on the Louis Pasteur. Mr. Doiron retired from the service in the 1970's.

Meta Data
Medium:
Video
Owner:
Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:
05:24
Person Interviewed:
Leonard Doiron
War, Conflict or Mission:
Second World War
Location/Theatre:
Europe
Branch:
Air Force
Units/Ship:
Royal Air Force Ferry Command (RAFFC)
Rank:
Sergeant
Occupation:
Radio Operator

Copyright / Permission to Reproduce

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