The Airman Who Fell from the Skies

John Greeves tells the story of the rear gunner who bailed out with no parachute - and survived

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In World War Two, aerial combat involved many risks. At thousands of feet, death could come suddenly from your enemy's weaponry, causing fire, explosions or sudden disintegration of the aircraft which sent it plummeting from the sky. While parachutes could save lives, falling to earth from 18,000ft without one guaranteed only one likely outcome but exceptions to the rules always exist and even death itself can sometimes be cheated.

Nicholas Stephen Alkemade, 21, became a rear gunner shortly after the outbreak of war. Born in North Walsham, Norfolk to an English mother and a Dutch father, he worked as a market gardener in Loughborough, Leicestershire. At the start of the war, he joined air-sea rescue launches but felt it lacked real excitement, so he transferred to RAF Bomber Command and trained as a rear gunner, assigned to No 115 Squadron RAF at RAF Witchford in Cambridgeshire.

On the night of 24 March 1944, Avro Lancaster B Mk II, DS664, took off at 6.48pm as part of a raid on Berlin with a crew of seven. Flight Sergeant Nicholas Alkemade was part of a young crew, all in their early 20s, who had already completed 14 successful missions.

The outward flight was without incident and their aircraft, nicknamed “Werewolf”, completed the trip to Berlin, before turning to make its long trip home.

Unknown to them, a powerful northern wind pushed the bombers south over the heavily defended Ruhr. Just before midnight, a Junkers Ju 88 night-fighter, flown by Heinz Rökker, attacked their Lancaster from beneath with cannon and machine gun fire. Rökker would become an ace and by the end of the war claimed 64 aerial victories, 63 of them were nocturnal kills.