In one account of the dogfight that put Australian Alan Binnie of 60 squadron out of the war says Binnie was shot in the arm, he passed out but his Nieuport 17 continued flying. Upon regaining consciousness he found himself sitting in his machine on the ground in a park in Lens. He was subsequently taken prisoner and lost his arm at the shoulder from the wound. Does this sound possible?

Fitzee

Possible to have a rotary-engined aircraft fly itself without input and land itself safely at an aerodrome? No. Now, if he switched off and killed the engine before he lost consciousness, most of the torque would be gone (there could be some windmilling), and some stability would be gained, but I really don't think enough for anything approaching that kind of result.

I think it's more likely that shock and stress (if he lost the arm it must have been a gruesome wound) made his mind completely blank out the experience until he was safe.

Alan Binnie is a pet project of mine. As for the plane landing itself, well its one of those things we hope to be true but logic stops us from confirming it.

Binnie did indeed lose his arm, he teamed up with "Jerry" Pentland in ww2. Pentland would fly his Dragon Rapide at tree level while Binnie lobbed grenades on any suspicious movements in the jungle below. He would pull the pin with his teeth, Jerry must have prayed that Binnie never dropped one of the grenades in the plane, it would be bad enough panicing with two arms trying to locate the grenade, without the handicap of one arm.

Binnie was later shot down while a passanger on a Liberator (I think??) as was captured and executed by the Japanese.

Regards,

Andrew

I'm afraid I'm guilty of embellishing what I read, Here's the account word for word

"Binnie was leading, and was hit in the shoulder when trying to extricate two of his partol from a cloud of enemies. The blood from his wound spurted all over the nacelle,obscuring the instruments, and in addition to this his machine caught fire.He extinguished the flames and then fainted when gliding homeward. The machine must have turned west after this, for he woke up in a small park in Lens, having hit the ground while still unconscious, without further injuries. He lost his arm at the shoulder and was a prisoner till the spring of 1918, when he was repatriated and immediately commenced flying again"

Fitzee

This is Alan Binnie's own account of being shot down;

My name is Alan Binnie. I am a captain in the Royal Flying Corps, and have been decorated with the Military Cross.

I am staying at No 40, Inverness Terrace, Bayswater. My home address is Quirindi, New South Wales.

I am 22 years of age. My occupation before the war was that of a grazier.

I was captured on the 14th April 1917, at Lens.

I was wounded in the left arm, while flying, by an explosive bullet. My arm has since been amputated.

I fainted at about 3,000 feet and fell down. I did not come to for about three-quarters of an hour, and then found myself on a stretcher with my arm in splints and all my clothes on

Doug

Thanks for that Doug

Fitzee

I have now uploaded the full transcript of his report here

Doug

What trade did he follow post WW1? And what did he get up to in WW2? I can see why he is a pet project.

Mick

Fascinating reading, thanks for posting it. Are these his service records: WO 339/22132 BINNIE A, Capt

Excellent link Doug.

Trevor