Hit By Shrapnel - F/O Ronald Crook
Jan 26, 2024 23:15:29 GMT 12
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jan 26, 2024 23:15:29 GMT 12
HIT BY SHRAPNEL
PILOT'S EXPERIENCE
MIDDLE EAST OPERATIONS
(N.Z.E.F. Official War Correspondent) ITALY, Jan. 19
Dazed and wounded in the head by a big, jagged piece of anti-aircraft shrapnel which smashed through his plane, an Auckland pilot, Flying-Officer Ronald Herbert Crook, not only successfully completed his bomb-run, but led his formation of Royal Air Force Baltimore light bombers back to their base behind the Allied lines in central Italy.
Flying-Officer Crook, who is the son of Mr. W. R. Crook, of 35 Valley Road, Mount Eden, had been on operational flying with Baltimores for nearly a year in North Africa, Malta, Sicily and Italy when this episode put him into hospital for a few days.
"In 64 operations, most of them supporting the Eighth Army, I have had many close shaves, but that was the closest of them all," he said, describing the experience. "We counted 54 holes through my aircraft."
Another remarkable flight back from over the German lines was made by Flying-Officer Crook on his birthday, when his Baltimore was again caught by a concentration of heavy anti-aircraft shells and his machine caught fire. Fortunately, the flames were got under control.
Italy is the 24th country Flying-Officer Crook has seen since he left New Zealand. It is almost three years since, with 18 other New Zealanders working as Government officials and in commercial firms in Fiji, he joined the Royal Air Force. He was a Government official in Suva.
At present he is the only pilot among the air crews representing the United Nations in the Desert Air Force who wears Fiji shoulder titles. The others who joined with him are now scattered through R.A.F. squadrons throughout the world.
Trained in Southern Rhodesia and Kenya, Flying-Officer Crook served in all parts of the Middle East before joining the Baltimore squadron, supporting the Eighth Army's offensive in Tunisia in March of last year. He has been continuously on operational flying with one of the best-known of the old desert squadrons ever since.
His brother. Sergeant Allen Crook, is in a New Zealand anti-aircraft battery which shared in the destruction of many German aircraft during the African campaign.
Flying-Officer R. Crook
NEW ZEALAND HERALD, 25 JANUARY 1944
PILOT'S EXPERIENCE
MIDDLE EAST OPERATIONS
(N.Z.E.F. Official War Correspondent) ITALY, Jan. 19
Dazed and wounded in the head by a big, jagged piece of anti-aircraft shrapnel which smashed through his plane, an Auckland pilot, Flying-Officer Ronald Herbert Crook, not only successfully completed his bomb-run, but led his formation of Royal Air Force Baltimore light bombers back to their base behind the Allied lines in central Italy.
Flying-Officer Crook, who is the son of Mr. W. R. Crook, of 35 Valley Road, Mount Eden, had been on operational flying with Baltimores for nearly a year in North Africa, Malta, Sicily and Italy when this episode put him into hospital for a few days.
"In 64 operations, most of them supporting the Eighth Army, I have had many close shaves, but that was the closest of them all," he said, describing the experience. "We counted 54 holes through my aircraft."
Another remarkable flight back from over the German lines was made by Flying-Officer Crook on his birthday, when his Baltimore was again caught by a concentration of heavy anti-aircraft shells and his machine caught fire. Fortunately, the flames were got under control.
Italy is the 24th country Flying-Officer Crook has seen since he left New Zealand. It is almost three years since, with 18 other New Zealanders working as Government officials and in commercial firms in Fiji, he joined the Royal Air Force. He was a Government official in Suva.
At present he is the only pilot among the air crews representing the United Nations in the Desert Air Force who wears Fiji shoulder titles. The others who joined with him are now scattered through R.A.F. squadrons throughout the world.
Trained in Southern Rhodesia and Kenya, Flying-Officer Crook served in all parts of the Middle East before joining the Baltimore squadron, supporting the Eighth Army's offensive in Tunisia in March of last year. He has been continuously on operational flying with one of the best-known of the old desert squadrons ever since.
His brother. Sergeant Allen Crook, is in a New Zealand anti-aircraft battery which shared in the destruction of many German aircraft during the African campaign.
Flying-Officer R. Crook
NEW ZEALAND HERALD, 25 JANUARY 1944
