A Sad One.

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Jenks
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Joined: Sat Nov 06, 2010 5:07 pm

A Sad One.

#1 Post by Jenks »

PETER DALLEY


A new pilot arrived at the flight - a devil-may-care young likeable Captain named Peter Dalley. He had already had one accident while doing Theatre training at Squadron Headquarters at Kuala Lumpur and was said to be over confident. He was a well known amateur heavy weight boxer and army rugby player who had also been selected to play for the state of Perak side, also he had considerable experience as a racing motorcyclist.

His father had spent a lifetime of service as a Special Branch Officer with the Malayan Police with the rank of Colonel, and had been sent back to the United Kingdom to brief the Prime Minister (Winston) about the future Communist threat and ask for more troops.

I recall travelling with him in his sports car from the airfield back to our Flight Headquarters, and was amazed to see a large crocodile blocking the road. I was further amazed to watch him leave the car and start kicking the tail of the crocodile which did the trick.

At the time I was in charge of the Flight Soccer team and had difficulty in selecting a team to play the Regimental team of the Malay Regiment. I had to play myself although a little too old (42 years old) to compete with young fit Malays.

We were short of a goal keeper and I asked Peter to play in goal as I figured a rugby player would be able to cope.

As he had no experience of soccer I explained the essentials, ie stop the ball going into the net and boot the ball up the field, or throw it to one of our unmarked players. Things were going well and we were winning 1-0 until Peter forgot the rules and gave away two penalties, through doing rugby tackles. I didn’t ask him to play in future games.

Some time later he was on the detail to fly our Brigadier from Taiping to Penang, a task usually given to me. The direct route entailed a sea crossing of 10-15 miles. As we were not carrying dinghy’s or wearing life jackets most pilots would divert by a few miles to make a shorter crossing. We had recently changed to a later mark of Auster with direct injection of fuel (no carb) and due to fuel boiling we had a spate of engine failures. This was later rectified with a modification.

Peter disregarded this precaution and was about to take the longer sea crossing when the Brigadier said, “Mr Jenkins always takes the longer route”. He had previously asked me why and I replied I didn’t fancy ditching in a shark infested sea in the event of engine failure. “Good thinking”, he replied.

On occasions single aircraft were sent on detachment to give support usually (supply drops etc) to units of Army or Police Field Force.

Peter was detailed to operate from the airstrip at Kroh in the Betong Salient on the Thai border. When landing at an unmanned strip the drill was to do a low fly over to check the strip was clear of obstacles or anything which could be hazardous to an aircraft landing.

Peter did this by flying downwind over the strip and pulling up to do a semi stall turn and a side slipping approach to land. Things went badly wrong and the aircraft dived vertically into the ground. The later investigation found that Peter had strapped his personal bag into the rear seat but unbeknown to him the ground crew had put a couple of wooden chocks in after he had checked the aircraft for loose articles. It was assumed that he had been struck by these causing him to lose control. He was taken from Kroh to Sungei Patani (the Ghurka depot) where medical facilities were available. This entailed a 40 mile journey and on arrival it was found a surgeon would be urgently required. It was now night time and we at Taiping were informed and told to fly one from the Military Hospital at Taiping. I was detailed for this and my passenger was a Major Brown (RAMC) who had recently performed a non serious operation on me.

It was a hell of a rush and I left instructions for our Duty Pilot to contact the Ghurkas and get them to lay out a form of flare path as it was now pitch dark and the landing path was rather short (the drill square).

Arriving 40 minutes later to find out no flare path, I took a chance from my previous knowledge of the layout having made numerous daylight landings there. I used a red light on the water tower as a guide and letting down on a compass heading managed to pull off a safe but bumpy touch down.

Reaching the Sick Quarters we were told that Peter had died. I shall never forget seeing him lying on the operating table with his leg almost severed. I went with Major Brown and a Ghurka Officer to the Officer’s Mess and downed a couple of double brandies.

Major Brown arranged to take the body back to Taiping BMH and I would return the next morning. I then got a call back to my Flight Commander to pass my intentions and give a message to my wife. He told me I would be acting as a pall bearer the following morning, a duty I had performed some months earlier. That was an old friend who had crashed into the jungle 2 years earlier and had not been found until recently.
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Ovenpaa
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Re: A Sad One.

#2 Post by Ovenpaa »

A sad one indeed.
/d

Du lytter aldrig til de ord jeg siger. Du ser mig kun for det tøj jeg har paa ...

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Jenks
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Re: A Sad One.

#3 Post by Jenks »

My neice visited Taiping on a round the world back packing holiday. She found Peters grave.

http://www.123people.ca/ext/frm?ti=pers ... wrt_id=413

Jenks
Robin128

Re: A Sad One.

#4 Post by Robin128 »

Very sad...thanks again, Jenks.

:)
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