Thank you for your service.
Under fire and squeezed into the front turret of an Arvo Lancaster, Eddie Chapman knew he had to get the escape hatch open.
It was June 1944 and the 21-year-old was part of the Royal Air Force’s No. 207 Squadron. He and six others on the bomber plane were shot down by the Germans near Niel-bij-As, close to Belgium, and before he realised there was any reason to panic Chapman was told to jump.
Putting on his parachute, he landed in a canopy of trees, “as sick as a dog and continuously saying the Lord’s Prayer”.
Four made it out alive, but three, including the pilot who “went down with the plane”, died.
Chapman recounted his wartime experience on Thursday as he celebrated turning 100 at his home in Palmerston North.
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