Sadly we won’t get to ask “smokey Cowling” of his version, as i understand he passed away just a few years ago.!

I am extremely grateful to of recently received the following email;

“Dear Wyvernfan,
I came across an old thread on the key publishing website forum as there was some discussion re my father, Cdr ‘Smokey’ Cowling, ejecting from a Wyvern during suez ’56.

Dad didn’t talk much about his various escapades (I heard most stories from his colleagues) but he did tell me what happened on that occasion.
An Egyptian contingent were well protected from above, being in a very solid concrete bunker-type coastguard building and they were holding up the marines, who were trying to get away from Gamil airfield to advance along the coast. Bombs were exploding on top of the building but not penetrating the concrete. Having previously been a Swordfish pilot, Dad decided to go in at street level and lob a 500 pounder through the window, torpedo fashion. As you can imagine, he came under a welter of small arms fire but he just concentrated on aiming the bomb. It worked and the marines were able to break out.

When he was pulling away he became aware of metallic noises from his engine – he said it sounded like ‘impellors breaking up and coming out of the exhaust’. The engine temp was rising well into the red, so he started to climb and to get away from land. He was only able to get to 1200 feet before a stall was imminent. He then throttled back, set up the photo-shoot and baled out.

With my best regards,

Jim Cowling”.

Many thanks to Jim for taking the time to get in touch, and for giving us his father’s version of events.

Rob