Crew: Emerson

My recollection is seeing Emerson’s Lancaster circling the Airfield low enough for us to see a gaping hole on the Port side of the Fuselage. It had to be that side as it was circling above us and in a left circuit. The reason he had to keep circling was because other Lancasters were waiting to come in, so he had no option but to wait. Obviously Air Control anticipated he was going to have problems and would probably close down the airfield if he came in and crashed blocking the runways.I had difficulty in trying to understand on recollection why we could see him so clearly in mid February at such an early hour. Then it dawned on me when I first saw your request for information. In those days we had Double Summer time and so it would have been light earlier.When he did start his approach he was approaching quite straight, then as he neared the Landing strip I suppose at about 200 feet the Lancaster just folded midway down the fuselarge and fell apart, both section hurtled to the ground. It was an awful sight. These guys could see for at least half an hour before that final approach the runway and all the activity going on and expecting to be with us soon.
My own conclusion for what its worth is because of that gaping hole, the Lancaster was stable as long as Emerson was able to maintain a flying speed; once the approach was being made and the last descent was being put into operation, the Pilot would order his Flight Engineer to throttle back – with that hole in the fuselage he would need both his hands holding the Lancaster on a straight line. The weight of the aircraft would then increase dramatically and the strain with such a large fracture in the fuselage would be too much, hence it would literally break up. As to why they didn’t bale out, it’s possible – as they had been hit by another Lancaster over the target and sustained damage – that perhaps a couple of the crew’s parachutes were damaged. At a height of possibly 20000 feet on a bombing raid a collision ripping a hole could create a suction of a considerable force – anything loose near the hole would be sucked out.