A Night to Remember
Ken Wallis and the Immingham Barrage Balloon
The crew :-
P/O Ken Wallis
P/O Ken Winchester
Sgt Walker
Sgt Rouse
Sgt Fairhurst
Sgt Campbell
Ken Wallis
22/23rd October 1941. Target - Mannheim. Aircraft Wellington R1459. Crew - P/O Winchester replaced P/O Ward. Up 1808 Down 0007. Bombed from 16,000ft at 2035. On the outward flight the oil coolers froze, possibly because of water in the system, and the co pilot was unable to pump oil to the engines, the pump handle and piston assembly breaking from the pump. They continued however and bombed the target from 16,000ft at 2035.
On the return flight, having encountered heavy flak over Liege, P/O Wallis and his crew unsuccessfully attempted to fly round a large thunderstorm area over the North Sea. One engine quickly iced up and failed. The other failed soon after. The windscreen iced over and the air speed indicator ceased to register because the pitot head had frozen up. The cylinder head temperature gauges dropped to zero and they lost height flying completely blind from 14,000ft to 1,000ft. The stormy seas below left little chance of a successful ditching and the wireless operator began sending out SOS signals.
The position seemed hopeless but at 1000ft one engine suddenly came back to life for a few seconds in fine pitch. P/O Wallis juggled with the alcohol pump and the throttles and managed to get both engines running although badly misfiring.
By this time the Wellington had descended out of the freezing air and, as the windscreen cleared of ice, white patches of broken water could be seen below. The flight continued towards East Anglia at 1,000ft.
Suddenly flak began to burst around the aircraft and it was realised that they had strayed into the Harwich defence area. The course was hurriedly reset and they headed back out to sea and then up the coast. P/O Wallis spotted a flashing beacon and asked his navigator to check the identity as he suspected that this was the beacon at Elsham Wolds. Almost immediately there was a sudden fierce impact to the aircraft followed by a rising “twanging” noise.
P/O Wallis instantly realised they had hit a barrage balloon cable which was cutting through the port wing about 18 inches from the fuselage. The airspeed dropped to 60 mph and to maintain flying speed P/O Wallis applied full throttle with fine pitch keeping the nose down. The cable continued to cut into the wing with a shower of sparks and a pungent burning smell pervaded the aircraft. As the geodetic sections were severed the aircraft gave a lurch, which, for a fraction of a second, gave the crew the false hope that the cable had broken until the cutting action resumed. The crew asked if they should bale out but P/O Wallis refused realising that they were over the Humber Estuary. The cable cut through the throttle control rods and fuel and hydraulic pipes to the port engine and the smell of hot metal was swamped by that of 100 octane fuel which was now running into the fuselage from the wing root but for some reason did not ignite. The port engine ceased to give power and was idling in fine pitch and, as the hydraulics were lost, the bomb doors and landing gear dropped adding to the drag.
Suddenly the cable broke and they were free, the whole incident having lasted a matter of seconds. The Wellington flew on with the port wing oscillating from the loss of torsional strength, the front upper and lower main spar having been partially severed The loss of hydraulics meant that P/O Wallis had no use of flaps.
With starboard engine at full power with fine pitch he flew to the beacon he had spotted a minute or two earlier. The amber downward identification light was used to flash signals to the ground to ensure that the airfield lights were switched on. The Wellington descended to 400ft with the gyro instruments toppling through lack of suction but no runway lights greeted them so P/O Wallis turned once more for the beacon and made another approach to their airfield firing Very signal cartridges. The Air Traffic control at Elsham Wolds again did not turn on the runway lights. The remaining engine on P/O Wallis’s Wellington was running at such high revs that they thought the high pitched engine noise was that of a German intruder in the circuit.
In the light of his Very flares P/O Wallis spotted the shape of other Wellingtons at their dispersals and then caught a glimpse of the runways but was forced to make another circuit to be able to crash land as he again lost sight of the airfield in the darkness. As they turned again the Wellington ran out of height. Something white vaguely passed underneath as the aircraft shuddered on the stall. P/O Wallis managed to hold off at the right height and the Wellington ground into a wet ploughed field. With one hand on the control column P/O Wallis tried to brace himself against the instrument panel. In the emergency he had failed to strap himself in and, as the aircraft hit the ground, he was thrown forward hitting his face against the de icing levers. He quickly recovered and opened the canopy hatch ordering everyone out as fuel poured out of the aircraft into the field.
P/O Winchester, the second pilot had been ordered to smash the open bomb door warning light on his side of the instrument panel as it was spoiling P/O Wallis’s night vision. As the Wellington crash landed he was stood on the steps leading into the nose of the Wellington. When underside of the nose made contact with the ground a large amount of earth burst in burying P/O Winchester up to his waist. He was pulled out by P/O Wallis none the worse for wear.
P/O Wallis counted his crew to make sure they were all out and found that there was one extra man. It was a guard from the main gate of the airfield only a few hundred yards away who had run across to help. In the field there were neatly piled anti invasion posts to be used to prevent the landing of enemy gliders bringing paratroopers. Fortunately these had not been erected. The white object seen just prior to the crash landing was the face of the Elsham Lime Quarry which the Wellington just managed to clear coming down in the field beyond. It turned out to be fortunate that P/O Wallis was not able to land on the runway because it was later thought that his fuel sodden aircraft would have certainly burst into flames on making contact with the concrete runway.
Wellington R1459 which crash landed in field next to RAF Elsham Wolds
Extensive damage to the port wing of R1459 caused by the barrage balloon cable
Several days later, at a hectic party given for him and his crew, the barrage balloon unit at Immingham presented P/O Wallis with a piece of the cable that had so nearly brought his downfall.
L - Ken Wallis R - Ken Winchester
Ken Wallis, Sgt Rouse and Sgt Walker survived their tours with 103 Squadron.
Ken Winchester was killed 15/10/1942 nearly 12 months later along with the rest of his crew:-
15/10/1942 – Cologne – Halifax – W7705 – F/L KFJ Winchester DFC RAFVR – 25 - Son of Percy Talbot Winchester and Leonora Winchesters of Battersea, London; husband of Madge Mary Winchester of Battersea - Rheinberg War Cemetery, Germany
Sgts Fairhurst and Campbell were killed on the 12/04/1942 flying in the crew of F/L R Gillespie.
12/04/1942 – Essen – Wellington – W5664 – Sgt EE Fairhurst RAFVR - Runnymede Memorial
12/04/1942 – Essen – Wellington - W5664 – F/S D Campbell RAFVR – 34 - Son of Robert Campbell, and of Ann Campbell, of Kinnaird, Perthshire - Vlissingen War Cemetery, Netherlands.
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Wellington R1459
The incident described above was the 5th operational flight for this aircraft which was then repaired and transferred to 29 OTU at North Luffingham, Rutland. On the 13/14 September 1942 it was involved in a serious crash just after take off for a raid on Bremen. The aircraft lost power and was unable to climb crashing at Empingham approx 3 miles to the north of North Luffingham. The pilot was P/O John Leslie Munro RNZAF who was later one of the pilots on the famous Dambusters Raid
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