Greenwood Crash

The following is an excerpt from NOT IN THE FACE OF THE ENEMY
(Robin Brass Studio, Toronto)

“On April 9, 1945, P/O John Bryden was giving instruction in a
Mosquito of No.8 Operational Training Unit (Greenwood, Nova Scotia).
Just after takeoff his port engine burst into flames.
Bryden took over from his pupil and hit the extinguisher;
the fire persisted. He then executed a gentle 170-degree
turn and crash-landed on the airfield; neither he nor his pupil were injured.

“P/O Bryden was recommended for an AFC, but Eastern Air Command
Headquarters queried this; they were inclined to charge him with
dangerous flying. According to accepted procedure, he should have
climbed the aircraft or made a straight-ahead forced landing rather
than risk a turning stall at low level. His immediate superior,
S/L H.C. Stewart, angrily wrote that ‘the book’ did not apply -
in part because ‘Mosquito landings away from aerodromes are
practically always fatal crashes’ and partly because the widely
spread out town of Kingston, Nova Scotia lay directly in the path
of the aircraft. The unit CO, G/C E.M. Reyno, concurred, adding,
‘If this aircraft, which is of wooden construction throughout,
had crash landed in or even near a populated area, with a full
load of fuel on board, the results would have been most disastrous.
‘ Eastern Air Command Headquarters relented, but the AFC
recommendation was downgraded to a Commendation.”