ACE OF NIGHT OWLS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 7, 23 September 1942, Page 2

ACE OF NIGHT OWLS

FIGHTS AT FULL THROTTLE Twenty-five years ago a war baby was snatched from his enulle and rushed to the shelter of a clownstairs room while the Gothas dropped their bombs around his home. His mother us.'d to worry lest the nois;; should harm her baby's nerves. To-day, her son—Acting Wing Commander John Cunningham, D.5.0., D.F.C. and Bar- is Britain's greatest night lighter a.'e. This argus-eyed man has an unsurpassed confirmed record of 15 Nazi bombers shot from the sky, two in a single patrol. K.A.F. nu'n sLiy that Cunningham has eyes at the back of his head. He caught his first night Nazi after a pursuit of only ten minutes. Facing a task almost equivalent to swatting a mosquito in the Albert Hall, he has yet staged throe combats between a single dusk and c\awn. Fascinating

"This night fighting business is becoming rather fascinating," he once tolcl me. "In night combats you have two problems, to outwit the other fellow, and to beat the weather. It may be more tiring than day patrols but it's more interesting • • At the height of the blitz, when night fighting was new, .he spent hours of flying in gales so violent that it seemed as if sometimes the wind must tear his craft in two. On some nights, the rain froze into sheet ice on the plane, throwing th? engines out of balance and sending jagged lumps of shrapnelhard- ice back into the fuselage of the machine." Thanks large l .:.- to the squadron— the famous 00 l''s —which Cunningham soon commanded, 10 Nazi bombers were shot down in a night 2.1 in three nights, and 70 in less than two months. One proud nighty Cunnilngham went up with the knowledge that his night owl squadron had. destroyed .">0 enemy aircraft, doming in over the sea, he spotted another bomber—and made it the alst. "We had a grand scrap," he reported, "fighting at full throttle. "After my first burst I noticed the Hun was flying very unsteadily and losing speed. I gave him several more bursts. I was just beginning to give up hope of finishing him off, in fact, when he suddenly roared up on his tail, turned and dived straight into the sea." At 20,000 Feet The temperature at 10,000 feet was oG degrees below freezing point on the night when Cunningham first caught the telltale glow of an enemy exhaust and trailed it up to 20,000 feet.

The coid struck through his electric Siclcot suit and the protective whale grease on his face, and seemed to twist a thousand (knives into his numbing bones. When he was so close that lie could, sec the faces of the men inside the Heinkel, lie pressed the gun button. The raider blew up! The single well-derected aim from his cannon- struck amidships and the darkness suddenly glowed in an explosion which the official report described as a ''firework display." A few minutes later, Cunningham saw another wraith-like shadow slipping across the night sky. This time his stream of tracer bullets cut through the darkness and ate into the German's engines., cut like a swath into the port wing. Steep Dive He prepared to sideslip against the answering fire but no return lire came, and still the bomber flew on an even course. What had happened? From the 11 utter of its propellers, the night ace could see the engines had. almost stopped and vapour was stream ing from the fail. Cunningham says that the next :j() seconds seemed like an eternity. Then, like a lumbering whale, the Nazi craft turned slowly to port and streamed towards the sea. Alert to tricks, Cunningham followed him clown. With every second the angle of the dive became steeper, however, until the bomber plunged into the cloud layer at an angle of 50 degrees from the horizontal and apparently out of control. So successful arc Cunningham's tactics that even when the enemy is aleH on the watch for night fighters he is often able to creep up undetected and administer the coup de grace.

Fifteen, miles from the English coast one night Cunningham actually watched a Hinkell 111 going round in circles to make sure it was not pursued. Closing at 14.,000 feet. Cuuningham undoubtedly gave the Jerries the shock of their lives. Orange Flame Once again, as his guns blazed, the lack of return fire seemed to indicate that the Nazi gunners had been killed and again the bomber veered down into the mists. Cunningham saw the fire of jettisoned incendaries, and then the burst of orange llame as the bomber hit the ground. In his own words: "Actually I was surprised he did not go down immediately I attacked him. I 1 expected him to fall out. of the clouds there and then. "When I spotted him the Heinkel pilot was just going round in a gentle turn. Round and round he went with me on his tail, and he suspected nothing. "I got into position and as the enemy pilot turned to cross the coast I closed in and gave him a burst. When later I saw the incendiary bombs go down some miles away it seemed obvious that the pilot was trying to get rid of them as quickly as he could. Then as I came near my home aerodrome I could see the burning aircraft on the ground. Catfs-eye Cunningham goes on from triumph to triumph. Many of the details of his successes must necessarily remain secret. Some of his certain successes have not been claimed because he has preferred to give the credit to others. On one occasion he Avas about to press the trigger upon his second encounter of the night when—before lie could fire —(lames flared from the German machine and it soared into a death dive. "The ack-ack took it away from meH' he grinned.