Five bombers - December 1944
It was in the second half of December 1944 that a flight of seven bombers were on their way to Italy in order to replace a part of the troops which were tired of the war. The night was clear and quiet and there were no problems till, at about 480 kilometres from Bermuda, the planes suddenly were throwed backwards and were pushed down for 200 meter. According to Dick Stern, crewmember of one of the bombers, the heavily shocked crew tried desperately to get the plane under control again, while it was smashed up and down by the turbulence.
Only at the very last moment they succeeded to get the plane under control after the props just touched the water.
The bomber was forced to turn back to the base where the crew discovered that only one other plane had returned. The other five were never found.
It is very interesting that Dick Stern experienced this exceptional phenomenon of high turbulence for the second time in 1961 during a flight from Bermuda. The suddenly appearing turbulence interrupted the story he was telling to his wife - the story of his frightening flight seventeen years ago….
