Free British Voices by William Sheehan

communication was received from the Australian authorities in London, requesting that I should place myself at their disposal for repatriation back to Australia. This did not please the CO as he wished me to remain with 141 squadron at least until the two forthcoming athletic meetings were over. The honour of an athletic win for 141 squadron was important to him. So he, in his forthright manner, wrote to the Australian authorities stating in no uncertain terms that Flight Lieut. F.C. Penny was doing important work with the squadron and was therefore indispensable! This explanation was apparently accepted, at least for the time being, and so I was nominated for the high jump events. In the meantime arrangements were in hand to hold an aerial derby open to RAF squadrons from Collinstown, Baldonnell, Oranmore, and of course our own squadron at Tallaght, which was to be the starting and finishing point for the race. Bonny and I worked on our own Bristol Fighter and my aircraftsman reduced the wing incidence and retuned the engine, which enabled me to reach a top speed of 127 mph.The event attracted a large number of entries and included various types of aircraft. Our own squadron at Tallaght contributed eight entries, all Bristol Fighters. With Bonny as my navigator, we were flagged off from the starting point in the early afternoon and made good progress to the first check point. The engine was performing well and the navigation accurate. On the second leg we passed several other competitors and on checking our watches and maps considered that we had a good chance of winning this event, if our speed and accuracy could be maintained.
    We reached our final turning point on good time and proceeded on our direct course back to Tallaght. The Bristol Fighter had two gasoline tanks, one gravity fed and located in the centre section of the upper wing, and the other on which the pilot sat, using a hand pressure pump to force the fuel to the gravity tank above. Noticing that the gravity tank gauge showed ‘low’ I started to pump in order to transfer gasoline from the pressure tank to gravity tank, but with no effect. By this time the gauge was showing ‘empty’ and I began to search for a suitable place to make a ‘forced landing’. I had one small field in view, the surface of which seemed reasonable, but it was the smallest on which I had ever attempted to land a Bristol Fighter. Flying at only 500 feet I had no option but to attempt a landing and using an almost vertical side slip decreased my forward speed which was sufficient to allow me to get over the nearest hedge. I used all the well-known methods of reducing forward speed such as ‘swish-tailing’, finally landing at the lowest possible speed with my propeller (which was now stopped) pushing itself into a box-thorn hedge. Fortunately no damage was done but I had no means of rectifying the trouble, so leaving Bonny in charge I walked to the nearest road and persuaded an Irish farmer to lend me his bicycle so that I could get to a telephone to call for mechanical help from the nearest RAF station, which happened to be Oranmore. Although the Irish farmer had mentioned telephone I found that there was only a small country post office with no telephone so I had to send a telegram. In due course a lorry with mechanics arrived and rectified the trouble, which was a blocked feed pipe. By this time it was getting late and I still had to get out of this small field and knowing the distance I still had to fly to reach Tallaght I knew that it would be dark before reaching the squadron. I requested the Oranmore staff to telephone Tallaght giving our approximate ETA and asked for flares to be laid out. The Bristol Fighter was a very stable aircraft with few or no vices. Its landing speed, however, was about 80 mph and at night time with limited lighting facilities, it was not always an easy machine to land. We landed safely, glad to be back, especially as a