Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 26, 2011 21:45:56 GMT 12
Pilot survived enemy raids
MATTHEW GRAY Last updated 10:51 22/03/2011
Good luck kept Flight Lieutenant George Ronald Simich alive during World War Two.
The Oratia resident left his job as an accountant to join the Royal New Zealand Airforce in November 1939.
He was piloting a bomber that came under attack twice during a bombing mission to Berlin two years later.
The 25 year-old successfully eluded both enemy fighters and was back in the air eight days later on his fourth trip to the German capital when his plane was pinpointed by search lights below and hammered by heavy flak.
Simich and his crewmates pressed on but were eventually forced to a dangerously low altitude and had to turn away.
They gained enough height on their retreat to turn around and have another go – completing the run and hitting their target.
It was an admirable feat given the circumstances.
But Simich does not seem to have been one to back off easily.
He was born on September 3, 1916 to a Yugoslav migrant named Marin and his New Zealand-born wife Mary.
Life on a bomber was extraordinarily high risk and few personnel survived more than five missions.
Simich lived to receive the highly coveted Distinguished Flying Cross and was also mentioned in dispatches.
But his combat flying career came to an end in July 1942 when his aircraft was shot down during a raid on Hamburg.
Simich was captured by Germans and incarcerated in Stalag Luft III – the same prisoner of war camp made famous in the 1963 film, The Great Escape.
The inmates were relocated in January 1945 as Russian troops advanced and liberated by American soldiers. Simich returned home where he stayed with 75 Squadron based at Ohakea.
He was taking part in a low flying exercise on August 27, 1948 when the De Havilland Mosquito he was piloting failed to recover from a roll and crashed into the sea off Himatangi.
Simich and his navigator Victor Baird were killed.
His body was recovered for burial in a family grave at Waikumete cemetery.
Western Leader
www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/western-leader/tales-from-the-crypt/4795006/Pilot-survived-enemy-raids
MATTHEW GRAY Last updated 10:51 22/03/2011
Good luck kept Flight Lieutenant George Ronald Simich alive during World War Two.
The Oratia resident left his job as an accountant to join the Royal New Zealand Airforce in November 1939.
He was piloting a bomber that came under attack twice during a bombing mission to Berlin two years later.
The 25 year-old successfully eluded both enemy fighters and was back in the air eight days later on his fourth trip to the German capital when his plane was pinpointed by search lights below and hammered by heavy flak.
Simich and his crewmates pressed on but were eventually forced to a dangerously low altitude and had to turn away.
They gained enough height on their retreat to turn around and have another go – completing the run and hitting their target.
It was an admirable feat given the circumstances.
But Simich does not seem to have been one to back off easily.
He was born on September 3, 1916 to a Yugoslav migrant named Marin and his New Zealand-born wife Mary.
Life on a bomber was extraordinarily high risk and few personnel survived more than five missions.
Simich lived to receive the highly coveted Distinguished Flying Cross and was also mentioned in dispatches.
But his combat flying career came to an end in July 1942 when his aircraft was shot down during a raid on Hamburg.
Simich was captured by Germans and incarcerated in Stalag Luft III – the same prisoner of war camp made famous in the 1963 film, The Great Escape.
The inmates were relocated in January 1945 as Russian troops advanced and liberated by American soldiers. Simich returned home where he stayed with 75 Squadron based at Ohakea.
He was taking part in a low flying exercise on August 27, 1948 when the De Havilland Mosquito he was piloting failed to recover from a roll and crashed into the sea off Himatangi.
Simich and his navigator Victor Baird were killed.
His body was recovered for burial in a family grave at Waikumete cemetery.
Western Leader
www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/western-leader/tales-from-the-crypt/4795006/Pilot-survived-enemy-raids
