THE LUCKY BASTARDS CLUB (A Reporter`s Tale) continued By Denis Price

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With the engine`s roar increasing the runway flashed by and I felt the exhilaration of the leap into the air. How short lived that was! Within seconds of take- off and being approximately from 6 to 10 feet in the air there was a terrific metallic crash from the rear of the aircraft , the rest I recall as if in slow motion. We were back on the ground with the aircraft swaying from side to side, through my window I could see we had strayed onto the grass at the runway`s edge and then back onto the tarmac, the aircraft was still unstable with the pilot trying to regain control as we raced forward.

My one fear was that if a wing tip hit the ground at optimum speed we`d flip over and being fuelled up, need I say more?

The whole experience must have been over in seconds and yet it was a lifetime, the American girl opposite me sat frozen with eyes glazed, I must have looked the same. Eventually we rolled to a halt, after a heavy silence the pilot muttered `Well, that didn`t go as planned`. That must be pilotspeak for `I made a right bollocks of that didn`t I ?`

Shaken and angry we re-entered the clubhouse, the jesters were still there having seen it all, not one of them looked us in the eye.

The girl behind the bar offered us drinks on the house, it was a cheap round, I had a coffee and Austin? He`d rushed into the lavatory immediately and didn`t emerge for an hour. The others had a beer. As we sat reflectively in the minibus waiting to leave, our pilot stuck his head in and apologised, said we were overloaded and that he should have weighed us first , he`d been a professional pilot for 14 years and it had never happened before!

I knew, that all of us on that aircraft were lucky, the tyre burst on the van was a warning that went unheeded, we may not have completed our 30 missions but like the young old faces in the yellowing photograph we`d survived and deserved our membership of that long forgotten exclusive club. To mark the occasion I bought a bottle of Tindall`s locally brewed Liberator beer, the label is inscribed `THE LUCKY BASTARDS CLUB`, I got everyone but our pilot to sign it , I`ll treasure it always.

Photographs courtsey and Copyright © Mo thisisUll.com at the Elvington Air Museum

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