Crew of Lancaster KB799
With their training completed at OTU No. 22 and No. 1664 CU the Vatne crew were posted to 419 Squadron arriving on August 24th of
1944
Although the crew flew a number of different Lancasters during their time with 419 Squadron serial number KB799 was assigned to them for about a third of their sorties.
KB799 had always brought them back home. On at least two occasions though things happened which forced landing at alternate bases.
On October 28th one of the tires blew on takeoff. After completing their sortie F/O Vatne flew VR-W back and landed at RAF Woodbridge.
The December 15th operation to Ludwigshaven, the target area was heavily defended with flak batteries. KB799 was hit in the starboard inner engine radiator. After the engine was feathered and the target was ten minutes behind them the continuing loss of glycol became a concern. This time the alternate landing base was Depham Green.
January 14/15 1945 - Leuna
Their early arrival in the target area left the crew of KB799 as the sole target for all the defences to single out. The flak was all concentrated on Lancaster KB799 as they made their bomb run. The flak tossed them around as they concentrated on the run into the target. Their luck seemed to be holding amidst all the flak thrown at them. Then a flak burst punched holes in both wing tanks. Within the wings was a system of fuel lines which could allow fuel to move from one set of tanks to another this too had been hit and was adding to the fuel loss.The Flight Engineer feathered the port inner engine in the hope of slowing down the fuel loss. Fire was also now a threat with fuel spreading out over the wings.
The pilot, F/O Vatne, put the aircraft in series of diving manoeuvers to help extinguish the flames that were now beginning to engulf the aircraft. As they dove and tried to continue on towards Allied lines the fire had grown too large to control.
The Lancaster headed westward for Allied lines which proved beyond the aircraft's reach. Either the spreading flames or the loss of the last of the fuel caused Vatne to order the crew to bail out. F/O Hoas in his summary of the events that night mentioned that they lost another engine, whether this was referring to the already feathered engine or one of the remaining engines is not clear.
The bail out took place in an orderly manner as the crew had practiced many times. From the front hatch Sgt. Mitchell, F/O Hoas, F/O Eager and Sgt. Chatwin jumped. The two gunners Sgt. Woods and Sgt. Woods left by the rear door. The aircraft was still at 12,000 feet when the six of them left the aircraft.
In Chatwin's report he mentioned he passed by F/O Vatne, that Vatne was getting ready to go. Later F/O Hoas mentioned that Vatne had jettisoned the canopy and signalled he was ready to go. What happened to Vatne is not known he never made it out of VR-W. F/O Hoas reported seeing the Lancaster explode. F/O Vatne may have just waited a few seconds too long before leaving his aircraft.
Capture and Imprisonment
The escaping crew parachuted down in the area between Trier and Coblenz which was near the front lines. Hoas was captured and taken to local jail at Trier where he again met up with Bob Eager. Eager had been beaten and slashed by his captors. No mention of his needing hospitalization is made.In earlier sources five of those who managed to escape were injured and spent time in prison hospitals. With P/O Gordon Woods the only one to have been sent to POW camps and issued a POW number.
Now the more recent account complied by Norman Hoas states that P/O Gordon Woods had frozen feet and was hospitalized while F/O Eager and himself were sent to an officers camp. The others F/Sgt. Ron Woods, Sgt. Mitchell and F/Sgt. Chatwin all were sent to an NCOs camp. See F/O Haos's Story For the full story of the capture and later events
KB799 was one of two Moose Lancasters lost that night, KB769 and six of her crew were also lost. With only one survivor F/O James Eddy
Lancaster KB799 "The Moose"
