Post by Dave Homewood on Apr 29, 2023 22:18:10 GMT 12
FORMER BANK CLERK
ADVENTURES AS PILOT
NEW ZEALANDER AT TOBRUK
LONDON, June 10
A former bank clerk from New Zealand, now serving as a sergeant pilot in a famous fighter squadron in the Western Desert, is in hospital after a series of spectacular escapes in the past two weeks.
"In my first adventure, I found myself landing on the ground with my aircraft destroyed," he said. "The Germans, armed with 'tommy' guns, were only half a mile away. I was got out of that by squeezing into the cockpit of a Hurricane with another pilot, who flew me 360 miles to safety.
"A day or two after my return I was ground-straffing an enemy landing ground and had set fire to two German aircraft when a couple of Bren gun shells hit my radiator. Fumes came into the cockpit, and two Messerschmitt 109's were hot on my tail. One got a burst into my aircraft, and I began to lose altitude. The elevator control began to misbehave, and I was flying along the tops of cliffs trying to shake off the Germans when I saw the outer defences of Tobruk.
"Just as safety seemed to be within reach my aircraft flattened out into a field and burst into flames, which were licking round my legs before I could clamber out, I thought I was still in enemy territory and dragged myself to a cave, where I lay for hours. A party of English troops out on a skirmish took me into Tobruk."
NEW ZEALAND HERALD, 17 JUNE 1941
ADVENTURES AS PILOT
NEW ZEALANDER AT TOBRUK
LONDON, June 10
A former bank clerk from New Zealand, now serving as a sergeant pilot in a famous fighter squadron in the Western Desert, is in hospital after a series of spectacular escapes in the past two weeks.
"In my first adventure, I found myself landing on the ground with my aircraft destroyed," he said. "The Germans, armed with 'tommy' guns, were only half a mile away. I was got out of that by squeezing into the cockpit of a Hurricane with another pilot, who flew me 360 miles to safety.
"A day or two after my return I was ground-straffing an enemy landing ground and had set fire to two German aircraft when a couple of Bren gun shells hit my radiator. Fumes came into the cockpit, and two Messerschmitt 109's were hot on my tail. One got a burst into my aircraft, and I began to lose altitude. The elevator control began to misbehave, and I was flying along the tops of cliffs trying to shake off the Germans when I saw the outer defences of Tobruk.
"Just as safety seemed to be within reach my aircraft flattened out into a field and burst into flames, which were licking round my legs before I could clamber out, I thought I was still in enemy territory and dragged myself to a cave, where I lay for hours. A party of English troops out on a skirmish took me into Tobruk."
NEW ZEALAND HERALD, 17 JUNE 1941
