SHOT DOWN AND BALED OUT OFTEN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 222, 18 September 1940, Page 7

SHOT DOWN AND BALED OUT OFTEN.

MANY ADVENTURES. New Zealand Airman's Colourful Career. British Official Wireless. (Reed. 2.30 p.m.) RUGBY, Sept. 17. A New Zealand flight commander, who is credited with shooting down 12 and one-thirtieth German machines —the fraction is due to a share he had taken in three actions with other pilots in bringing down single enemy aeroplanes—has had an adventurous time reaching this score. He has been shot down four or five times and has baled out three times.

One day in July he made a head-on attack on a Messerschmitt 109. Neither he nor the enemy would give way. They collided, and the Messerschmitt's airscrew struck the upper part of the British pilot's cockpit. His hood would ■ not open, so he had to smash his way out as flames entered the cockpit. He was awarded the D.F.C. for his share in escorting a Miles Master training aircraft across the Channel to Calais to rescue his squadron-leader. He and another pilot in Spitfires were attacked by twelve Messerschmitts. Both pilots destroyed one each and shared in the destruction of a third and probably a fourth. The Miles Maoter was undamaged. He had a very narrow escape recently, when he had just taken off with another pilot. As they left the "round a bomb came crashing near them. The port window of his aircraft was torn off. He and his machine were hurled into the next Held, landing upside down and skidding along for 100 yards before coming to rest. He was rescued by the other pilot.