(Avro Ansons with bomb racks). The pilot and I , (the Radio operator), left Blackbushe Airport in June 1948 and proceeded normally via Lyon, Rome, Athens, Nicosia (cyprus) , where we nightstopped. In the morning, as we prepared to leave, the RAF police there asked us to check around the aircraft, as some soldier on the airfield had fired his revolver at a barking dog during the night, and they didn`t know where the bullet might have gone! . However,we could not find anything so we pressed on to Baghdad, Bahrain and Sharjah on the Oman Peninsular. Checking around the aircraft before leaving Sharjah, we found what looked like a .45 bullet hole right through the tip of the wing, fortunately there was no serious damage.! When we left Sharjah we headed for a small RAF outpost called Jiwani , which was roughly half -way between Sharjah and Karachi. MAP OF ROUTE TAKEN (Drawing not to scale) 
The weather report that we had been given for the route showed Fair/Fine with nothing untoward being indicated. After about one and a half hours we noticed that the visibility was reducing with no indication on the weather reports of this. We then began to realise that this was a large Sandstorm and decided to descend to a lower altitude where we could see the sea and make out the coastline to our left.
By now more than 2 hours had elapsed and we should have been nearing Jiwani which was on the Eastern side of a large bay. I was calling Jiwani on the radio but with no response. As we were on the right side (Eastern side) of a bay and could just make out what looked like a possible landing strip, we decided to make an approach to have a look although the visibility was appalling and the pilot thought there was not enough fuel to return to Sharjah.
We were on the final 200 yards and the Sandstorm suddenly engulfed us just as we were about to touchdown. We could just make out some rocks which we tried to avoid but unfortunately struck , causing the undercarriage to collapse and the propeller tips to curl up. We eventually came to rest and made a hasty exit in case there was a fire. By now the visibility was about 5 yards with the wind blowing the sand hard into our faces. After a few minutes, when the danger of fire had gone and it seemed safe to re-enter the aircraft, I started to re-assemble the Radio that had been torn from its mountings. I then started calling Karachi to tell them what had happened and where we thought we were.
After about 3/4 hour had passed ,and we were wondering what to do next, when quite suddenly ,apparently from nowhere, a man appeared . How he had located us in this visibility I will never know. However, as we tried to converse, unsuccessfully at first,we brought out a map and torch and indicated to him where we thought we were. After looking at the map for a while he pointed to a similar bay with a village called Charbah, but it was about 60 or so miles West of Jiwani.!! I now had to re-transmit by radio to Karachi the corrected position, also to arrange a schedule for calling them every few hours because of the limited life of the aircraft batteries.
We were then led, through the sand, to a small building where we spent the night. By the next morning the weather had cleared and we were able to see the extent of the damage to the aircraft. It was certainly beyond our help. There was nothing we could do to salvage it. It appeared that we had landed near to a small remote village in Southern Iran and now had to work out just how we were going to get out of there. ( Photo at end of story) There also appeared to be a small detachment of soldiers based there . We had managed to strike up a form of conversation with the villager who had found us and other villagers who were good enough to have given us food and shelter. Their main lifestyle seemed to be fishing, then drying them to sell at their local market.They even took us out in one of their boats, and I managed to hook a 80 pound Stingray.!!
In the meantime I had periodically radioed Karachi and they said they were sending out a Dakota from RAF Mauripur (Karachi) with some supplies for us. When the Dakota duly arrived there was great excitement among the villagers as it made several low passes before parachuting down 2 containers to us. We opened them with anticipation and found a little of everything you could possibly need, food, water, medical supplies, cigarettes and the one thing that seemed most important , at the time, mosquito nets, as the place was full of large flying insects, especially at night.
By now the aircraft batteries were getting very low ,so we decided to try to transmit some final arrangements to get us out. We had already checked with the villagers and the soldiers if they could supply us with some Camels and guides in order to get us to the next bay, some 60 to 70 miles along the coast where, hopefully, we would be met by a launch from RAF Jiwani. ( It was a long way around the bay , plus crossing the border into what was then Baluchistan, was what the guides would not consider. Anyway, that was the plan that I transmitted to Karachi Control who, we presumed, would pass it on to RAF Jiwani. I also managed to send a signal to Bahrain to be forwarded to our company in the UK They replied asking us to check the length of the landing strip so that they might be able to send a Bristol Freighter to salvage the crashed aircraft. We did just that , but it did not appear to be quite long enough.
We set off at an agreed time with the camels and guides and spent the next 3 or 4 days plodding Eastwards, sleeping in the open at night. We arrived at the West side of the bay in the late afternoon, only to find absolutely nothing there, just miles of desert inland and a rocky coastline; very desolate.( We found out afterwards that the RAF at Jiwani had got the wrong message and sent a Landrover the other way to look for us .(Eastwards) !! As it was by now too late in the day to turn back we bedded down for the night , although the guides indicated that we must go back for a day in order to get water for the Camels.
The next morning one of the guides was excitedly pointing out to sea , where we could just make out a small boat with a number of rowers coming towards us. It stopped a few hundred yards out and we could make out one of them (a naval type),viewing us through binoculars . Eventually they came ashore .(They had been a bit doubtful about landing as our guides looked very fierce with their ammunition belts slung across their shoulders; besides that, it was a foreign country they would be landing in). Apparently Karachi had sent out a Naval Frigate to look for us and the captain had got it right, anchoring out in the bay. He then sent in a Whaler boat to find us.
Having said our goodbyes and thanks to our guides and leaving them gifts from our emergency supplies, we climbed into the boat and were rowed out to the Frigate where all the crew were leaning over the handrail cheering us in!. We were soon taken to the wardroom and given a stiff drink before having a much needed bath. The Frigate then up-anchored and started on its way back to Karachi. After stopping the night and visiting the Meteorological Office to find out why we had not been informed about the Cyclone Sandstorm we caught the next plane back to the UK.
