An Allied airman survived a fall from 18,000 feet on this date 79 years ago...

On the evening of March 24/25, 1944, Flight Sergeant Nicholas Alkemade survived an 18,000-foot fall from the ball turret of his Lancaster Mk II. The bomber, under the callsign "Werewolf," took off at 1848 hours from RAF Witchford, Cambridgeshire, on their 15th mission. Later that evening they dropped their payload over Berlin without incident and turned around to head for base.

On their way back, however, a strong wind pushed them off course and over the heavily fortified Ruhr region of Germany. They were attacked with fierce anti-aircraft fire from the ground and Luftwaffe fighters from the air. Just before midnight, a Ju-88 night fighter attacked Werewolf, shredding its fuselage and right wing. The strafing run also blew out the acrylic material on Alkemade's turret. Werewolf burst into flame and the crew was ordered to don their parachutes and bail out.

Alkemade opened the turret hatch just long enough to see his parachute burning and the heat from the flames to melt his rubber oxygen mask. The flames soon breached the turret hatch and ignited hydraulic fluid, setting his clothes on fire. Trapped and burning, Alkemade accepted his fate and jumped into the night.

The last thing Alkemade saw was Werewolf exploding into pieces above him before he lost consciousness. Three hours later, he awoke in a foot of snow in a small pine forest. Other than cuts, bruises, and a twisted knee, Alkemade was miraculously uninjured.

To celebrate his survival, Alkemade lit a cigarette and puffed his way through it in the early morning darkness. Figuring he would freeze to death as he could not walk, he blew his distress whistle. German civilians soon found him and transported him to a local hospital where Gestapo agents arrested him as a spy. They did not believe his story and concluded he must have buried his parachute after being dropped in country by the SOE or some other intelligence branch.

After investigating further, however, they discovered that Alkemade's story checked out. So instead of being executed for being a spy, Alkemade was sent to Stalag III Luft as a prisoner of war. Alkemade would survive his internment in the POW camp and would live to the age of 64, dying on June 22, 1987 in his native England.