Not so fortunate was my second crew, who not surprisingly on such long operations, ran out of fuel and ditched in the Indian Ocean. Picked up by a Dutch ship on its way back to Ceylon, the crew were back on operations after 10 days of pumping sea-water out of bodies. Normal practice was to get back in the air before one thinks too much! On their return to ops after ditching, I joined this crew on the next eight long-range operations to replace the member who had been too seriously injured to continue. This took my tally up to 518 operational flying hours, and my enforced 'grounding' to have the obligatory rest period, and embark on the following reflections. . .

As one can imagine from such unconventional air operations, many incidents occurred which space excludes on this occasion. We knew none of the usual aircrew ‘perks’’, living ourselves in jungle conditions without the usual amenities. Pride of place however, must go to the ‘bods’ we dropped into the realm of the enemy…whose treatment of prisoners defied all Conventions. The Force 136 member’s courage in willingly facing such an enemy has never really been recognised.

Our worst fears were realised when POWs were flown back to Ceylon after 15th August. Large numbers of those who had survived until now, never made it back to Britain alive.