In World War II, few jobs were more dangerous for Allied servicemen than duty in a bomber crew. In 1943, for example, some American Eighth Air Force bomber groups recorded 400 percent personnel turnover in just three months. At the time, bomber crews were tasked with a 25-mission tour of duty. Most never made it past their fifth mission. Things were even more horrendous for British bomber crews. Out of 125,000 airmen who flew for RAF Bomber Command, over 55,000 were killed – a 44.4% death rate. A further 8400 were wounded in action, and nearly 10,000 were taken prisoner, for a total loss rate of 58%. Amidst the carnage, there were amazing accounts of airmen who survived falls without parachutes from miles up in the air. Below are some fascinating facts about one such account.
Nicholas Alkemade’s Horrible Options
It is not the fall from high up that will kill you. It is the sudden stop at the end that will do you in. The preceding is a good rule of thumb, but like most rules of thumb, it has some exceptions. One such was the case of the British Royal Air Force’s Flight Sergeant Nicholas Stephen Alkemade (1922 – 1987). On the night of March 24th, 1944, he was serving as a rear gunner in an Avro Lancaster heavy bomber, part of No. 115 Squadron RAF. On the way back from a nighttime bomber raid on Berlin, Alkemade’s Lancaster was attacked by a German Junkers Ju 88 that had been configured as a night fighter. The attack set the Lancaster aflame, and it began to spiral out of control.
Unfortunately, space restrictions in Lancaster bombers meant that rear gunners like Alkemade, unlike other bomber crew, could not keep their parachutes with them in their assigned position. Instead, his parachute was stored some distance away inside the bomber. So he crawled through the burning Lancaster to get to his parachute, but by the time he got there it was already on fire, and thus entirely useless. As the flames licked their way towards him, Alkemade was faced with a terrible choice: get burned to death in the bomber, or die from impact with the ground. He figured the latter was less painful, so he jumped out of the flaming bomber. Alkemade fell 18,000 feet to the ground, but as seen below, he miraculously survived.
The Airman Who Survived an 18,000 Foot Fall Without a Parachute
It seems that somebody was watching out for Nicholas Alkemade when he jumped into the night sky out of his Lancaster without a parachute, from a height of more than three miles. He fell into a stand of fir trees, then onto soft snow that covered the ground. The tree boughs and snow broke and cushioned his fall. Alkemade was knocked unconscious for about three or four hours, but when he came to, he was shocked to discover that he was alive. He could move his arms and legs, nothing was broken, and the only damage he suffered was a bruised back and strained leg.
Alkemade was captured and interrogated by the Gestapo, who at first refused to believe that he had jumped from a bomber without a parachute and survived. They finally accepted his tale as true when they found and investigated his bomber’s wreckage. Alkemade spent the rest of the war in a POW camp, where his survival story made him a celebrity. After the war, he worked in the chemical industry, and was featured on Just Amazing, a British television series about people who pulled off extraordinary feats or survived against incredible odds.
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Some Sources & Further Reading
Hastings, Max – Bomber Command (1979)
History Halls – World War II Bombers: Britain’s Handley Page Halifax
Royal Air Force Museum – The Indestructible Alkemade
