RIP Flight Lt. Gil Graham
Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 12:32 pm
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituar ... raham.htmlThe Maydwell crew's most remarkable engagement, however, came on July 29 during a reconnaissance off the Italian coast near Leghorn. Nearing the northern tip of Corsica, they came upon an enormous aeroplane which the navigator described as resembling a "block of flats". It was a six-engine Me 323 transport aircraft, similar in size to a modern-day Boeing 747. Wary of the formidable defensive armament carried by the enemy aircraft, Maydwell manoeuvred his Marauder just ahead of the lumbering transport so that Graham could bring his guns to bear. This he did with great effectiveness, and the giant transport crashed on a Corsican beach. Graham was awarded an immediate DFM.
Miraculously, the German crew survived, and in 1984 Graham met his former adversary, the German pilot.