Pilot Officer Leslie Thomas Manser was 20 when he took part in a bombing raid on Cologne on the night of 30 May 1942; Manser was the first pilot of an Avro Manchester bomber. As he came over the target, his aircraft was caught in searchlights, and although he bombed the target successfully from 7,000 ft (2,100 m), it was hit by flak. To escape the anti-aircraft fire he took violent evasive action, this reduced his altitude to only 1,000 ft (300 m) but he did not escape the flak until he was clear of the city. By this time, the rear gunner was wounded, the front cabin full of smoke and the port engine overheating. Rather than abandon the aircraft and be captured, Manser tried to protect the aircraft and crew. The port engine then burst into flames, burning the wing and reducing airspeed to a dangerously low level. The crew made preparations to abandon the aircraft, which was barely controllable by then and with a crash inevitable. The aircraft was by now over Belgium, and Manser ordered the crew to bail out but refused the offer of a parachute for himself. He remained at the controls and sacrificed himself to save his crew. As the crew parachuted down, they saw the bomber crash in flames into a dyke at Bree, Belgium,13 mi (21 km) northeast of Genk.
Pilot Officer Barnes was taken prisoner, but Sergeant Baveystock, Pilot Officer Horsley, Sergeant King, Sergeant Mills and Sergeant Naylor all evaded capture and returned to the United Kingdom. The testimonies of the five evaders were instrumental in the posthumous award of the Victoria Cross for Manser.
Негізгі бет Ойын-сауық HEROIC RAF PILOT STAYED AT CONTROLS OF CRASHING BOMBER TO LET CREW ESCAPE
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