- Feb 14, 2002
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- Lexton, Northcote Park
About having to use a hose to get the remains of the rear gunner out of shot up turrets,
I too have heard stories of this happening. In a case related to me, from the radio operator in the same plane, he recalled watching them do this after their plane landed. To make things worse, the rear gunner was the radio op's best mate.
The radio op. had a tragic life. He married a beautiful English girl in London, in the 1950s, who was a ballerina with the Royal Ballet. Six weeks after they married, she was killed in an auto accident, in which the radio op was the driver. Unsurprisingly, when I met him in the 1990's, he liked a drink. Surprisingly, despite all that had befallen him, he was neither depressed nor pissed off with life. A remarkable man, with a sophisticated sense of humour and an engaging turn in self-deprecation.