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# Face of the Day
- URL: https://goodoil.news/face-of-the-day-780/
- Published: 2023-07-14T18:30:51.000Z
- Updated: 2023-07-13T23:58:33.000Z
- Author: Good Oil Staff
- Tags: History, NZ, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2024-07-16 22:22

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.  
>  
> Stuff

[Read more here](https://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/300927299/royal-air-force-world-war-ii-veteran-and-former-pow-celebrates-turning-100?ref=goodoil.news). Discuss it on *The BFD.*

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