IDENTITY OF AIR HERO ESTABLISHED

Chronicle (Levin), 5 July 1946, Page 4

IDENTITY OF AIR HERO ESTABLISHED

- Press Association

GAVE LIFE TO SAVE HUNDREDS OF DUTCH

Bv Telearavh-

WELLINGTON, July 4. Tlie identity of the New Zealand warrant officer who, in Octoher 1944, when flying a rocket-firing Typhoon over Holland, deliherately crashed hit aircraft and lost his life in order to save the lives of hundreds of Dutch civilians, has now heen estahlished, says a statement issned hy head quarters of R.N.Z.A.F. tliis afternoon. He was Warrant Officer Ivan Willian: Cain, of Auckland, whose patents, Mr. and Mrs. William Cain, reside at 656 Dominion Road. An Australian who was an eyewitness of the incident and who was at the time a memher of the First British Airborne Division at Nijmegen, has stated that Cain's Typhoon was ap parently retnrning from Germany with its engine hurning. "It passed ovei the woods behind Nijmegen and fireci its rockets among the trees there ahosu half a mile from where I was stand ing," said the observer. "I foliowed the flight of the plane which was smomng consicieraoiy and watcned it disappear hehind some houses. I com mandeered a jeep and raced to the spov Ln case first aid was needed. The plant had heen brought down on a small plo. of ground almost entirely surroundec by houses, in what appeared to he a thickly popidated area as hundreds oi Dutch people had already gathered by the time I arrived on the scene. In my opinion the pilot had ample time to bail out hut deliherately stayed at the controls until he found a clear space to land/' At the time of the crash the identity of th,e pilot was in doubt and the Australian observer says he gave the story to a Reuter's correspondent at the time because he thought it fitting that the identity of the pilot should he estahlished and that his people at horne should know of the courageous way in which he gave his life. "As an Australian serving with the British forces," he said, "I felt it my responsibility to see this act of heroism did not pass unrecorded. His death occuring so near to me affected me more than perhaps it would have done were the pilot any other than an Australian or a New Zealander."