30th April, 1941. Boulton-Paul Defiant at Gatley

Royal Air Force Defiant N3376 of No 96 Squadron was on a night exercise practising interceptions from its base at RAF Cranage from where it had took off at 10.30pm. However it encountered problems close to Ringway. After suffering engine failure, the Defiant eventually came down in Park Road, Gatley. The pilot, Sergeant Ralls and his rear-gunner Sergeant Phillips both escaped without injury after bailing out prior to the crash.

A detailed account of this crash can be found in the book ‘Cheshire Airfields in The Second World War’ by Aldon Ferguson which I have reproduced in full below with all credit to the author.

“Sgts Ralls and Phillips flying Defiant N3376 ZJ-E had taken off at 10.30pm to carry out practice interceptions with the commanding officer, Squadron Leader Burns, taking the part of the bandit. At 10,000 ft it became apparent that all was not well with the Defiant’s engine, which had commenced to splutter and finally stopped altogether. Ralls ordered Phillips to bail out, so he swung his guns around to face starboard then opened the cupola doors, and got into a sitting position on the back of the turret with his feet on the seat. At that moment Ralls shouted, “Hang on Philpy”, as the engine had started again, only to stop almost immediately. Ralls again ordered, “Bail Out”. Phillips flung himself backwards, forgetting to undo his intercom and oxygen tube, which gave a slight tug as they parted.  Phillips commented after the incident:

“I remember a delicious sensation of falling onto the softest of feather beds, a feeling that no doubt accounts for the fact that I didn’t pull the ripcord until I had dropped approximately 2,000 feet! Then I pulled once and nothing happened except that the handle came out to about opposite my right shoulder. Twice, and the whole handle came right out of the suit and in a split second my groin had received a jerk that nust surely have split me in two but for the straps around my body which immediately took the strain and weight. I looked up and there was the most beautiful sight I have ever seen, for above me was the canopy, white and lovely in the moonlight and all the cords coming down to me. A hell of a pain in one side of my groin brought me, metaphorically speaking only, of course, back to earth, and I began to look around me. I estimated that I was about 2,000 feet above the clouds and the moon, though rather weak, showed small gaps in the clouds and through them to a dark void below.”

He saw an explosion on the ground then a small fire through one of the gaps; the aircraft had come down in Park Road, Gatley. He continued:

“For what seemed an age I floated along in almost unbearable pain which I tried to alleviate by pulling on one side of the ‘chute and taking the weight off one side of my groin. This only served to make me sway from side to side pendulum fashion and having heard of chaps being sick, I decided to try and forget the pain and think of other things. At this time I was impressed with the silence that reigned up there – not a sound of any description and when my canopy flapped in the wind it sounded like artillery fire. I was now on the tips of the cloud and gradually sank into the damp clammy blackness feeling perhaps for the first time during the jump that I was actually going down.
I started to wonder all kind of things. Where was I? Would I land in water? How did that damn quick release work? A hundred questions must have popped through my mind at the time but as I sank lower I could see white streaks in the blackness, which I took to be roads. This answered perhaps the most urgent of my questions, as I had no Mae West had I landed in water. The streaks or roads were in great profusion, so I knew that I was in a town or village and when about 200 feet up, I observed a light crawling along a road that was directly below me. It was a bicycle lamp and I could see the rider silhouetted against his light. I shouted to him and he looked around, saw nothing, and cycled on. I shouted again, all the time dropping lower and again he looked round and, again seeing nothing, he noticeably increased his speed and shot away up the road.”

In watching this man, he had not noticed where he was landing and ended up on the roof of a school, with the canopy over the roof held taut by the ridge tiles. Having been helped through a bedroom window, much to the delight of some evacuee children whose dormitory it was, he was taken to a house across the road where he was offered liquid refreshments. A telephone call to the camp summoned an ambulance and word that Ralls had landed safely about a mile away.