Life Depends on a Silken Thread: F/Sgt Larry Goheen's jump from a burning Halifax
Many years ago, I came into possession of some of my uncle's wartime Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) aircrew artifacts including his logbook, Navigator's brevet, various documents and most prized of all, a small royal blue box about 1.5" by 1" containing the most striking lapel pin a ten-year-old boy had ever seen; a gold caterpillar with ruby eyes. It was explained to me that this pin marked inclusion into an exclusive association of members known as the "Caterpillar Club." Membership required the member to have successfully used a parachute to bail out of a disabled aircraft. The club was founded by Leslie Irvin of the Irvin Airchute Company of Canada in 1922. The name "Caterpillar Club" refers to the silk threads that made the original parachutes thus recognizing the debt owed to the silkworm. The Club's motto is "Life depends on a silken thread." On a cold night in November 1944, my uncle, Flight Sergeant Larry Goheen, was one of those whose life depended on silken threads. Here is his story.
At 1719 hours on 4 November 1944, Halifax Mk VII NP775 (OW-K) of 426 Squadron, RCAF took off from its Yorkshire base at Linton-on-Ouse. OW-K was the first of sixteen 426 Squadron aircraft to take off that evening for a raid on a synthetic chemical plant located at Bochum in the Ruhr. My uncle, Flight Sergeant Albert Larry Goheen from Saskatoon Saskatchewan, was the Navigator of the crew piloted by Flying Officer Robert Jones. Known as Larry or simply "Go" by his crew, my uncle was already an experienced Navigator when he joined Jones' crew. Having completed 13 operations already with 408 Squadron in July through September, a quarrel with the crew's captain led my uncle to request and receive a transfer to the neighboring 426 Squadron.
This was Larry's 9th "Op" with 426th and his 21st trip overall. The outbound leg of the trip was uneventful but as they reached the target area, the Halifax was coned by searchlights. Jones put the Halifax into a steep diving turn to starboard to escape. Jones regained height and resumed course for the target. The Bomb Aimer, Roland "Rusty" Bick of Medicine Hat, Alberta, released the bomb load comprising one 2000-pounder, seven 1000-pound bombs, and four 500-pound bombs. Although hit by shrapnel during the bombing run, OW-K escaped relatively unscathed and set course for home by flying south then west of the target. The crew braced for a bumpy ride as they approached the Wuppertal-Cologne defensive belt.
The aircraft received a direct hit on the portside wing root that set fire to the port inner engine, wing, and fuselage. Jones struggled with the Halifax as the controls were knocked out as well. Descending at 240 mph Jones manage to bring the nose up briefly by opening up the remaining engines and adjusting the trim. He then ordered the crew to bail out.
All seven crew members got out before the aircraft blew up in mid-air. Larry landed in the open countryside outside of Cologne. According to his diary, he spent "seven days and nights by foot sleeping in the woods and haystacks and eating raw cabbages and freezing." He was captured on 11 November on the outskirts of Cologne. Two days later, under escort by a single guard, Larry traveled by rail to Frankfurt and was placed in a cell for seven days of solitary confinement. He was interrogated twice by a Luftwaffe officer and once by the Gestapo. He recalled, "lovely grub, bread and soup once a day..."
Larry was eventually sent to Luftstalag VII near Bankau, Silesia (now Bąków in Poland) in late November and spent the next seven weeks "where time hung monotonous" until 19 January 1945. That morning 1500 POWs were evacuated at 0500 and the POWs marched out in a "freezing blizzard." Larry recounts he spent the next twenty-one days on the road with just three loaves of bread and scrounging what food he could find. The POWs reached Goldberg on 5 February where the were loaded onto a train and sent to Stalag III-A located at Luckenwalde south of Berlin. He was eventually liberated by the Russians and returned into American lines on 8 May 1945.
