‘File 7/10 Mishaps to R.A.F. aircraft’ [‎33r] (67/200)

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attacked on their way by bandits. The map carried by the airmen
marked a British Hesldency at Bushlre; and the airmen accordingly
decided that their best plan would be to send a message to Bushlre
asking for help. The Customs Officer, who assured them that a
runner could reach Bushlre within a week, gave them pen and paper
on which to write their message.
6. During their stay at Tahirl they were well fed though
they noticed that food was by no means plentiful in the village.
For breakfast they had eggs and bread, while for the mid-day and
-s, evening meals they ate rice with furnishings of meat dates veget
ables etc. They saw many people making their way Westwards along
the coast and were told that these were people who were driven
by lack of food to look for work at Abadan. Almost every day of
their stay, they told me, the Shaikh of Barak and his followers
went out to raid the tribe to the South of them with whom they had
a feud. In the course of these affrays three of the Barak men
were killed. Apparently the place where the aircraft landed was
in the w No Man 1 s Land !t lying between the territory of the two
quarelling Shaikhs. All of the arms which the airmen saw in the
possession of the ihaikh of Barak and his followers were old.
They were of Russian or German manufacture and the newest which they
noticed was a Mauser manufactured in 1917.
6. In the forenoon of June 11th the airmen heard an aeroplane
overhead. This aeroplane, a Blenheim, was the one which had been
sent out from Bahrain with stores of food medicine etc. The Blen
heim was flying along the coastline about 50 yards out to sea at a
height of under 50 feet. The Blenheim speeded byi the airmen
wira waved violently, but still the Blenheim went on.
They thought they had not been seen and were beginning to despair
when suddenly the Blenheim swept roun^i in a circle back towards theaw
It subsequently transpired that the pilot of the aircraft had not
noticed them but his air gunner sitting behind had seen them waving,
i eanwhile in the intervals of their waving the airmen were writing
out in large letters the word r, Here ,, in the sand. The Blenheim
circled over them several times. The first time it dropped
a message saying that a ship would arrive the next morning and
that in the meantime they were going to drop a number of bundles
of food clothing and medicine. If the pilot of the Blenheim saw
that they were recovering these bundles he would drop finally a
bundle containing 5000 rlyals (money which with the assistance of
Mr.Qunn I had collected from the Bahrain bazaar in the early hours
of the morning). All the packages were dropped with extraordinary
accuracy on the shore beside the airmen. Tahiri villagers collect
ed them as they fell and put them into a pile. The airmen then
wrote in the sand "O.K. Thanks'* and the Blenheim flew away over
the sea.
7. On the morning of June 12th H.M.S. '•Sea Belle" arrived
and took the airmen on board. With them went the Customs Officer
who was given % lunch and with whom the airmen were for the first
time able to converse coherently through the n Sea Belled" inter-
.preter. The "Sea Belle 11 then went to the site of the forced
landing. Anything of value on the aircraft was then recovered
before the frame was destroyed. The only things of value which /
were not recovered were the parachutes which had been locked up
in the Shaikh of Barak's house. The Shaikh was away on a raid
and the airmen were naturally reluctant to break into his house
during his absence after the kindness that he had shown them.
Nothing had been stolen from the aircraft after the Shaikh had
placed guards on it.
8. The airmen pressed Sadruddin Suddedor, the Tahiri Cus
toms Officer, to accept a present of money in return for all that
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