Kiwi Kriegie

A New Zealand Airman remembers
his experiences as a POW in World War 2

60 Years ago today!

 


 A search light.
Caught like a moth.
Nowhere to hide.
Tracer fire coming up like water from a hose.

The starboard wing is on fire
between the inner & outer engines
we are falling into a diving turn to the right

Pull hard on the yoke - left rudder
try to raise the nose
the ailerons feel slck or disconnected

everything turns into a black void
full of noise

I feel suspended in this void
with things striking me from all sides

The sound of crashing, rending, tearing metal
is the most significant impression of all

then silence

 

where am I




                                                                                Galbraith Hyde

 

 


Two engines knocked out
and too low to bail out.

In the first letter to his father after the war
he recounts how he knew at that moment they were going to crash
and felt quite sure he was about to die

but not worrying in the least
merely feeling a mild interest in what was happening and thinking

"Well, soon I'll know if there is anything behind the veil".

This of course all happened in a flash.

 

They plowed into a small mountain
at about 180 miles an hour.

He was not even strapped in,
was thrown all over the place
and recieved a massive crack on the head.

 

It wasn't the last time in the war that he would be sure
he was about to die.

 

Timothy Hyde

 

 

 

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This page created - November  12th  2002

All Contents © Copyright 2002
Timothy G Hyde

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