While I think of it, a story related to me by a lifelong friend now deceased that was a flight engineer on B24s with number 24 Squadron. He also flew missions with an American Bombardment Group as part of a mixed crew which I understand was not unusual in those days.
Lindsay was based at Fenton in the Northern Territory and Truscot was used as a staging field or an alternative destination if fuel shortage was an issue. A B24 crashed in the Fenton circuit area returning from a mission up into the DEI with one of the crew being killed. Lindsay assured me that the inside dope was that the fuel situation had been touch and go for the return to Fenton and the aircaft overflew Truscot because the skipper had a date with a nurse back at base. He was adamant that the flight engineer should have stood his ground and insisted on putting down at Truscot. Knowing Lindsay, I believe he would have done so.
Life and death can rest on such slender underpinnings as the personalities involved.
David
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Hell no! I'm not that old!
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20-08-11, 11:27
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