Ingenious These Belgians

Last week in London the Royal Air Force signed on two more recruits. They were two Belgian fliers whom the Germans captured last year. They finally got back to Antwerp, but they did not like the way things were going. They chafed to do something about it. But what? They learned of an old army trainer. It had been left in a stable outside Antwerp. One night they went to the stable and were overjoyed to find the plane still there. They made keys to the stable lock and got in.

Although the old crate's instrument panel had been stripped clean, the two fliers by devious means got a compass and an altimeter. They rigged up an air speed indicator from the spring of a broken chair. Nazi sentries patrolled a quarter-mile away, but the fliers cycled out night after night to work on the plane. They got automobile gasoline and tried redistilling it themselves.

At the end of three months they were ready. On the night set for their takeoff, the engine wouldn't start. Carburetor trouble. But next night came the music of exhaust explosions. With the Nazis so near they did not dare wait to warm up the engine. However, the take-off's only flaw was the lopping of some branches off a few trees. Over the Channel they climbed to 9,000 feet but the old crate's engine began to conk out, and they had to descend to about 1,300 feet.

"But the engine picked up again, and we were just able to reach the English coast and make a forced landing in a field, ushered in by an R.A.F. night fighter."

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