The Airmen's Stories - Sgt. J Mann

Jackie Mann, who has died at Nicosia aged 81, first showed his mettle as a Spitfire pilot in the Second World War; and his spirit was still undaunted nearly half a century later, when he was taken hostage in Beirut.

Jack Mann was born at Northampton on June 11 1914 and educated at St James's School before training as an aircraft engineer at Phillips and Powis of Reading. His passion for aviation led him to volunteer for flying training and by 1940 he was a sergeant pilot in No 64, a Spitfire squadron in Fighter Command. Later he served with 92 Squadron. Mann relished the ebb and flow of fighting over southern England in the Battle of Britain and set about the enemy with reckless bravado. Six times the Spitfire he was flying was hit; six times he succeeded in crash-landing his crippled aircraft. His horror of bailing out derived from the time when he had circled protectively above a colleague who had parachuted and watched helplessly as the man's burning body dropped out of the harness 1,000 feet from the ground.

On one occasion Mann's Spitfire was hit by 15 cannon shells over the Channel. He managed to make it back to land though the starboard wing fell off on impact and killed two sheep. Convinced that he had landed in occupied France, Mann beat out his burning clothing and returned to the cockpit to obtain his parachute, which he threw into a ditch. His hope was that the Germans would fail to find it and deduce that he had bailed out miles away. Starting off through fields, Mann approached a farmhouse where he encountered an elderly woman who commiserated with him on his "horrible motor-cycle accident" and mounted her bicycle in search of a doctor. He was in Kent.

It was claimed that, on the fourth occasion that Mann's Spitfire was hit, his family arrived at the hospital with a coffin to collect the remains. They were told he had already returned to his squadron.
Mann's closest shave came in March 1941 when a bullet in the petrol tank set his plane ablaze as he was flying over the French coast. Rather than bring the Spitfire down in occupied France and become a prisoner of war, he determined to coax the aircraft back to England - notwithstanding the flames which were roasting his cheeks and forehead. He crashed in a field but managed to get clear before the Spitfire exploded.

Subsequently he underwent prolonged plastic surgery as one of Sir Archibald McIndoe's "Guinea Pigs" at the Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead. It was at this time that he met Sunnie, who was born Dilys Pritchard. They were married at Chiswick Registry Office in 1943. While Mann was in hospital he was awarded the DFM. When he recovered the RAF thought in terms of a ground posting in India until Sunnie intervened with McIndoe. "Take him off flying," she warned, "and he'll blow up." So Mann became a night-fighter pilot and instructor before leaving the RAF at the end of the war as a flight lieutenant.

Afterwards the Manns moved to Beirut where Jackie was for more than 10 years a pilot for Middle East Airlines while Sunnie worked as a stewardess. Mann resolutely refused to learn Arabic or French and insisted on eating only British food. "I'm a bacon and egg man" he said.

Later, he became manager of the Pickwick Club in Beirut while Sunnie concentrated on her horses. They were a disputatious couple who spent a considerable time apart. Nevertheless, after an Israeli shell had accounted for Mrs Mann's horses in 1981, and the Pickwick Club had been closed by a bomb in 1983 they lived together in a flat which cost £1.50 a month. In spite of the alarming deterioration of the situation in Beirut, the Manns refused to budge. They were often trapped between the ever shifting front lines, and spent days at a time in underground shelters. Sometimes there was no water, sometimes no power, while the threat of bombing and kidnapping was ever present.

By 1989 they were the only British couple left, naively convinced that they were too old and frail to present a target to the hostage takers. This calculation was disproved on May 12 1989 when Jackie Mann failed to return from his daily trip to the bank. He had been bundled into a car by members of an organisation which styled itself the Union of Palestine Refugees. In September 1989 reports circulated that Mann was dead but Sunnie, mindful of his talent for survival in the Second World War, never despaired.

Aged 74 when taken hostage, Jackie Mann was held in solitary confinement throughout the entire period of his incarceration and frequently chained. "They treated me as if I were some sort of goat" he later recalled "and hit me on the head if I was in any way recalcitrant, which happened several times a day" He kept his spirits up by incanting "Bugger off, you bastards" His guards would hold a gun to his head then pull the trigger to reveal it was unloaded. One of their leaders offered his release if he submitted to homosexual rape. "I can force you, you know" "I'd rather you didn't" Mann replied.

His glasses were lost, which denied him the solace of reading; he resorted to endless games of patience. Although he was given regular meals his dislike of Arab food remained insurmountable and he lost three stone. After 865 days in captivity Mann was finally released in Damascus on Sept 24 1991, in response to Israel's liberation of 51 Shi'ite Moslem prisoners and the handing over of the bodies of nine Lebanese guerrillas two weeks earlier. When Mann, weak but cheerful, landed in Britain at RAF Lyneham, a Spitfire greeted him with a victory roll. But he was not tempted to live in Britain - "not on your life, too bloody cold".

The Manns moved to Cyprus, where they assured reporters that they were still squabbling. In 1992 they published ‘Yours To The End’ a memoir which showed some animus against Lady Thatcher for having refused to countenance a deal for the release of hostages.

Sunnie Mann died on Nov 30 1992, aged 79; they had no children.

Mann was appointed CBE in 1992.

With acknowledgments to the Daily Telegraph