The Hornet's Sting_ The Amazing Untold Story of World War II Spy Thomas Sneum - Mark Ryan [41]
They had made the task a little easier by punching that hole in the fuselage behind the cockpit and just above the fuel tank. But once they had shoved the hose through the hole, Sneum was going to have to face his fears, step out and make things right.
Pedersen’s role would scarcely be pressure-free, though. He would have to fly the plane faultlessly to keep her steady, and Tommy had often poked fun at his friend’s lack of prowess as a pilot. He explained later: ‘Kjeld wasn’t the best of pilots at that time, although he became an excellent pilot later. In Fleet Air Arm he had taken things too seriously, and he didn’t like to take risks. We made fun of him for being very, very careful all the time.’ However, that perceived lack of spontaneity could now become a life-saving strength. If Pedersen lived up to his billing and demonstrated a plodding lack of ambition in the cockpit, then both men might survive. But he hadn’t flown for over a year and this wasn’t a plane he knew well. Tommy revealed: ‘There were pedals for both seats because the plane had originally been equipped with dual controls. But we had only one fork-shaped stick, and that was in the middle. The stick and the rudder bar could be worked properly only from the pilot’s seat. So Kjeld had limited ability to fly the plane from his side.’ Pedersen knew that the smallest error could cost his friend his life, which put him under intense pressure. And his well-meaning advice was less than helpful: ‘For Christ’s sake, don’t fall down,’ he said.
‘Thanks, Pedersen,’ Tommy replied. ‘That was just what I needed to hear.’
As Sneum pushed the heavy hose further through the hole in the fuselage, he remained composed. ‘I wasn’t afraid at that point,’ he claimed later. ‘I wasn’t too happy about doing it, but it was necessary. The alternative was certain death. If I failed and fell off before refuelling, maybe Kjeld could survive with a forced landing. But if I got the fuel tube into the tank and then fell off, he could just continue by changing seats.’
When Tommy tried to fling open the port-side door, however, it slammed in his face, shut fast due to the extreme air pressure. The refuelling process had sounded achievable when they had planned it on the ground. Now the reality was proving very different. In order just to get the door open, Tommy decided that Kjeld would have to decelerate. Sure enough, once Kjeld did this, the door could be opened. But as he poked his head out, Sneum was momentarily unnerved: ‘The wind was howling and it was pretty dark, because you couldn’t see much in the thick fog. It was very cold and in those seconds the full reality and the great danger involved in going out there became clear. I was afraid of getting out.’ Nevertheless, ‘I stepped out onto the wing with my right foot and held on to the inside of the door frame with my left hand. Then I leaned over and pulled the tube further out of the hole in the fuselage, from the outside this time.’
The plane rocked a little with the shifting weight and Pedersen tilted fractionally to compensate. Sneum was thankful that his left arm and foot were still inside the plane, and he hadn’t transferred all his weight outside. But then he brought his left foot out onto the wing too, and only his left hand clung to the inside of the cockpit. At that point he knew that if the plane banked again, he would be gone. ‘I think we were about a hundred to a hundred and fifty meters above the sea,’ he recalled. ‘But it didn’t matter if we were a kilometer up in the sky or twenty meters. If I fell off, I’d had it.’
Tommy tried to concentrate on the task in hand, rather than on what could so easily go wrong. He was struggling for breath and fighting to maintain stability, but he knew that to turn back now would be even more suicidal than continuing. With the hose twisted firmly around his right arm, he flexed the freezing fingers of his right hand and attempted to unscrew the fuel cap. ‘At first I couldn’t do it because my fingers were so numb, and I almost lost my balance,’ he explained. But