10 Oct 44 - F/L Alan Morrison, F/S Merv Roberts, F/O Don Andrew and W/O Jack Bates were returning to middleburg to refuel after a sweep along the north coast of Ceram. The formation flying at 8,000 feet east of Misool, on course for Sansapor, when, at 0905, it entered unexpected thick cloud front. A short time later Morrison announced that the formation would turn to the left, and Andrew stayed with him until he lost sight of his leader in the soup. Pulling up 500 feet, Andrew completed a circle. There was no break in the cloud, so Andrew spiralled down to 2000 feet. Still in cloud, he decided to bail out by keeping the aircraft straight and level and pushing himself out of the cockpit. Andrew floated through cloud and rain, and struck the limb of a tree with his forehead as his parachute became entangled in the foliage. Suspended sixty feet in the air, and the parachute shrouds were not long enough to enable him to reach the nearest tree trunk, fifteen feet away. After two hours he decided that his only option was to drop to the earth below so he released the parachute harness, pulled the dinghy out, and fell on his left side. The fall knocked Andrew out. When he recovered consciousness he found that he had landed two hundred feet from the bottom of the ravine, Andrew, still carrying his Mae West and dinghy, followed the watercourse for three hours until he found a ten foot wide stream running in a north-easterly direction. The dinghy, which he had inflated to enable him to follow the stream, was punctured by a snag, forcing the marooned pilot to wade through the shallow water to the streams edge. By late afternoon he had struggled downstream to a point where the broadening stream passed through a large stand of bamboo. Andrew dined on 'two malted milk tablets, quarter fruit bar and some water treated with water purification tablets in his escape kit', before deciding on constructing a raft and attempting to reach Misool Island. The raft was constructed from bamboo and vines, but Andrew discovered that the river was becoming to shallow, in places, for the raft to float. He was forced to drag his vessel over long stretches. Night was falling, so he 'pulled up on a gravel spit and settled down for the night.'  Discharged on 9th October 1945.

Australian War Memorial - Nominal Roll