Video: The moment Eddie Humes is reunited with a Lancaster bomber
A 95-year-old Second World War veteran from Nottingham who was the sole survivor of a plane shot down by the Germans has been reunited with a Lancaster bomber.
When he was 22-years-old, navigator Sergeant Eddie Humes was part of a crew that came back from Aachen in Germany after a bombing run when one of the aircraft’s engines was hit.
The wing was blown off and the fire spread to the engine which eventually fell off.
The captain decided he had to abandon ship with a procedure in place with an order of which people went – the second to go was Eddie.
He pulled on his parachute and made his way to the escape hatch but had put his parachute on incorrectly.
The slipstream from the plan pulled him out and he made a crash landing to the ground which broke his leg.
The aircraft then crashed killing everyone left on board with Eddie the only survivor; he was rescued by a Belgian family who took him in and treated him.
The break on his leg was so severe, Eddie was handed over to the Germans who treated him in hospital and he had a special operation.
He became a PE teacher and headmaster after returning to England.
Video: Eddie speaking about imagining his crew back together
Eddie said: “Looking at the plane took me back to the evening when we were shot down and I could visualise falling out of the plane.
“I saw the escape hatch and wondered how I got out.”
Because he was looked after in Germany, Eddie did not know what had happened to his crew for a number of years.
“I didn’t know what had happened with the crew – it was many years before I found out what had happened to them.
“I couldn’t contact their families for years.
“All the information I’ve got since then has been obtained by the nephew of the engineer who died and he’s done magnificent work.”
Michael Peck, a Forces Friend volunteer with Age UK, is part of the charity that brought Eddie and the plane together – and he’s known Eddie for a number of years.
He said: “I joined the Air Force at 15 as a weapon’s technician and I served for 25 years and ended up as a chief technician.
“I met Eddie through my Air Force connections and was introduced to him by his neighbour – I was talking to her one day and she shown a magazine of this aircraft being restored and I was really interested in it and she said this came from Eddie next door.
“I went to meet Eddie, found we had something in common, wanted to see Just Jane together and since then have been going regularly to see him.”
