Hurricane Mk I, 290-B, N° 3 Sqdn, Addis Abeba, Abyssinia, May 1941.
Lt. Venter took off from Addis Abeba, on the 24th May 1941, on a routine patrol of the Jimma area. No enemy were encountered at Jimma, but he spotted a well camouflaged stationary truck on the road to Decano. He dived down to attack and started straffing it with his .303 machine guns. Lt. Venter was still diving onto the truck when it suddenly exploded. The massive explosion which occurred directly in front of the diving Hurricane, resulted in considerable damage to the leading edge, wing tip and the tail plane. Lt. Venter flew the badly damaged Hurricane back to Addis Abeba, where, due to the damaged flight controls, he was unable to land at the first attempt. The aircraft however, crashed on the second landing attempt, where once on the ground, a large hole was also discovered in the oil tank. Lt. Venter's skilful piloting had brought the precious but damaged Hurricane back to base, and he escaped the crash landing without injury. After this incident, pilots received instructions that no isolated stationary trucks were to be shot up, as it was presumed that the enemy were placing booby traps on these, thus turning them into explosive traps.
Lt Albertus Stephanus Venter was sadly killed ten days later, when on the 3rd June during bad weather, he flew into mountains south of Cossereo.
Lt. Venter took off from Addis Abeba, on the 24th May 1941, on a routine patrol of the Jimma area. No enemy were encountered at Jimma, but he spotted a well camouflaged stationary truck on the road to Decano. He dived down to attack and started straffing it with his .303 machine guns. Lt. Venter was still diving onto the truck when it suddenly exploded. The massive explosion which occurred directly in front of the diving Hurricane, resulted in considerable damage to the leading edge, wing tip and the tail plane. Lt. Venter flew the badly damaged Hurricane back to Addis Abeba, where, due to the damaged flight controls, he was unable to land at the first attempt. The aircraft however, crashed on the second landing attempt, where once on the ground, a large hole was also discovered in the oil tank. Lt. Venter's skilful piloting had brought the precious but damaged Hurricane back to base, and he escaped the crash landing without injury. After this incident, pilots received instructions that no isolated stationary trucks were to be shot up, as it was presumed that the enemy were placing booby traps on these, thus turning them into explosive traps.
Lt Albertus Stephanus Venter was sadly killed ten days later, when on the 3rd June during bad weather, he flew into mountains south of Cossereo.
