They had left the good Adana-Ankara road now and were following mountain tracks along a river valley which drained all the northern slopes of the range. The big trucks had six-wheel drive and coped with the resulting bogs more effectively than the Land-Rovers; on the other hand, the smaller vehicles were unable to bring up the rear, for the bogs were churned into impassable morasses by the lorries. So the Land-Rovers went ahead, to be manhandled through the deeper bogs and up the steepest gradients.

It took them four hours to cover twenty-five miles, and then they came to a village. This was at the end of the road - in fact, the road ended with such dramatic suddenness that it ran into the mountainside and the big trucks had no room to turn round.

The village headman was friendly and helpful, and the tired airmen, British and American, were offered the hospitality of the schoolhouse in which to set up their base camp.

It snowed during the night but the next day, by mountain rescue standards, was reasonable, although cloud built up in the afternoon.

They knew that the route they'd seen from the air started from a point about three miles farther up the valley (the village was on the flank of the mountain a few hundred feet above the valley floor), so they proposed to descend to the valley in the Land-Rover and drive the last three miles. But, through an interpreter, the peasants told them that they could guide the team directly to the wreck from the village in three hours. It was arranged then that a party of six led by Emmerson should take the guided route while the remainder of the team, under Davis, left a dawn to try to reach the crash from a point farther up the valley. The Air Police favoured the guided route and the village headman agreed to take them along. The Americans were mounted on mules. Two turks led Emmerson at high speed round the western flank of the mountain to an agreed rendezvous where he arrived at the same time as Davis.

They reached a point from which they could see tow corries ahead. They knew the wreck lay in one of these, but they were uncertain as to which one, so they split into two parties again. The tip of a wing was found in one corrie, but the main body was on the other side of the containing ridge.

This ridge was flanked on its left side (looking into the mountain) by a diamond-shaped buttress of rock. The right-hand edge of the buttress formed a corner with the ridge, and in the back of the corner was a crack over one hundred fet in height. The Mercator had flown straight into this corner, cutting a swathe of snow along the side of the ridge with its starboard wing-tip. The mark of the wing and some spars were still visible on the side of the ridge, and right in the back of the corner a large piece of wreckage rested in the top of the crack. It was covered by new snow and unidentifiable. The main bulk of the aircraft had come to rest on a snow slope a few hundred feet below the corner. There were no survivors.

They reached the scene of the crash at midday. The sky was overcast now and the weather building up. The climb to the wreck had taken three and a half hours and the snow in the corrie was knee-deep in places. The final slopes were hard, but they were using the crampons which Robertson had ordered from London so opportunely nine months ago, and step-cutting was unnecessary. The Turks jibbed at the hard snow, and Emmerson lent his axe to one of them, who found it useful although his technique, Emmerson remarked sadly, was poor.

They descended to the valley at dusk, having found one body. A new base camp had been set up several miles above the village and at the end of navigable road. The Air Police elected to stay in the village where there were wood-burning stoves in the schoolhouse. They had no tents nor cooking equipment. The police had nor reached the wreck. Their mules had refused to go above the snow-line, and the men had continued on foot, but had been forced to retreat eventually.

It snowed again during the night and next day the mountain was in cloud. Davis and the two radio operators stayed at base to organise a Continue to page 8