"DEAD MEN" MEET

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 115, 9 June 1941, Page 3

"DEAD MEN" MEET

AIR FORCE CRASH IN 1917 ENDS ACQUAINTANCE FOR 24 YEARS' MELBOURNE ENCOUNTER Two "(lead men" mot in Melbourne recently. The "ghosts" just cannoned into each other. "I thought you were dead," said one. "I could have sworn you we're gone," the other replied. Their previous meeting was in the cockpit of a Royal Flying Corps Sopwith two-seater on an airfield near Ypresi in August, 1917,. Captain I. M. Moffat-Pender was pilot and Second-class Air draftsman W. T. Smith was observer. They met the other day as Squadron Leader Moffat-Pender, R. A. A. F., down on leave from a northern station, and Sergeant Smith R.AAi.I%, of the staff of recruiting and training headquarters. In August, 1917, a flight of three Sopwiths was to carry out aiv offensive patrol from Yprest to Menm and Armentieres. But their plane became detached from the patrol and they turned over Ypres to begin their flight along the course of the River Lys alonq, They flew at 7500 feet, and a German plane, waiting in the clouds to pick off stragglers from the. Allied patrols, dived and put a burst through the petrol tank. Moffat-Pender was Avounded and slumped down on the stick. •Smith returned the fire with liis Lewis gun and set the enemy, on fire. Meanwhile the "Old Man." the squadron's nickname for MoffatPender, had let the Sopwith go into a falling-leaf dive, and while Smith clambered along the fuselage and pulled back thei stick, she lost about 3000 feet. In a few more seconds they crashed They did not see each' other again l for 24 years. They were both back into uniform as soon as the call went out for aid hands in this war.