Date
Location
Force
Aircraft
From-To
Crew
11-11-1942
In the sea near Portugal
USAAF 64Th TCG
Douglas C-47 Skytrain 41-18353
St. Eval (GB) → Algeria
Capt D. O. Holingsworth USA
T/Sgt F. Judd USA
2 Lt W. Crooks USA
Cpl Le Roy Holingsworth USA
P/O H. Pederson Canadá
3rd British Parachute Regiment
Sgt T. W. Webster GB
Sgt W. Higson GB
Cpl J. Deasy GB
Cpl A. McGinn GB
Pte E. W. Channon GB
Pte Mackintosh GB
Pte W. Smith GB
Pte Johnson GB
Pte Thompson GB
Pte J. A. Twort GB
The navigator was the Canadian Pederson from the RCAF, and the 107 Sqn. The Americans were lacking navigators at the time and there are many reports stating the presence of British navigators in American airplanes. Besides the four American crewmembers there were also ten men from the British 3rd Parachute Regiment.
The radio operator reported that there was jamming and confusion on the air and that he finally received signals wish missled him and they just travelled to far into the high sea. When they discovered the error it was too late to reach land. Whit about 15 minutes of gas they located a ship and the pilot ditched the aircraft nearby. The backdoor flung open to the inside the fuselage, hitting and puncturing one of the dinghies. Four of the men jumped in one of the dinghies and five to another.
The other six men were taken from the aircraft by a small rescue boat that came from the Spanish vessel "Miraflores", on the way to Bilbao. The ship’s captain took some time to rescue them because he believed it was a German aircraft in maneuvers.
The aicraft crew was able convince the captain to leave them in Lisbon where they arrived on November 13. The Canadian and the Parachuters were taken to Hotel Europa and the Americans to the Swiss Atlantico.
The airmen were repatriated on November 15. The Parachuters returned home in a BOAC flight trough Poole (ireland) on the November 21, 1942.
Resources:
*Evade & Escape Report - National Archives/ London Kew
*Fórum "www. armyairforces.com"
*www.firebirds.org
*www.paradata.org.uk
