During WWII, was it common for pilots who bailed out of their aircraft to be hit by the tail section of their own plane?

 Airmen sometimes got stuck on or hit their planes while trying to escape. It’s believed that Luftwaffe ace Hans-Joachim Marseille was knocked out or killed by hitting the tail of his plane as he bailed out. He didn’t open his parachute and died.

A very lucky escape story comes from Canadian Pilot Officer J.E. Abbotts. He recalled:

“My squadron was 403, but I was flying with 421 Squadron, which needed more pilots. After escorting bombers near Amsterdam, we were flying at 30,000 feet.

I saw two ME 109s below us. I was told to go after them. I broke formation and was hit by flak—oil and smoke were everywhere. I fired at the enemy but was out of range. I started heading toward the North Sea, but my engine stopped, and a 109 came in to attack me. I dove to about 4,000 feet and decided to bail out.

As I jumped, I hit the fuselage and was knocked out. When I woke up, my parachute strap was stuck on the radio mast. I was hanging on the side of the plane, which was still gliding smoothly. I tried to free the parachute, but I was too close to the ground. I thought it was over and passed out again. When I woke up three hours later, I was in German hands.”

So how did he survive? His Spitfire landed on its own. A Dutch witness, Albert Phillipps, later wrote to the Canadian Department of National Defence:

“On July 29, 1943, a British fighter plane came down near our fields in Hillegom, Holland, smoking heavily. The pilot was hanging from the side of the plane, his parachute stuck on the radio mast. The plane landed by itself, going slow enough that it didn’t crash. It missed a house by inches. The pilot was dirty and covered in mud, but not badly hurt. He said he was Canadian, but the German soldiers told me to stay quiet.”

Looking at Abbott’s Spitfire, it’s clear how incredibly lucky he was to survive.