KEEN EYESIGHT .

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 284, 29 August 1942, Page 8

KEEN EYESIGHT .

N.Z. Pilot’s Success In

Desert

(Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) DESERT LANDING GROUND, August 25.

B" shooting down in flames a Junkers SC night raider behind the El Ala-, mein line last night, a New Zealand pilot (in ‘•Cobber’’ Kain’s old squadron). Warrant Officer -E. L. Joyce, D.F.M., Hamilton, brought his own score of enemy aircraft destroyed to seven. The squadron has destroyed 288, including 163 in the Middle East. One -of three New at present in the squadron. Joyce is almost the exact opposite of Kane in stature and nature. Known among the, desert pilots and in his home town as “Nipper,” he is thin and stands scarcely'higher than the cannons on his plane. As with most New Zealand' pilots, he says little about bis successes in almost 300 hours’ flying above Egypt and Libya. The quality which amazes his .fellow .pilots and. one which lias made him one of the Middle East's most successful night fighter pilots, is his uncanny eyesight. Last night he saw the Junkers —a reconnaissance plane, believed to have been photographing the back area—from a distance of two miles. Joyce, dived on the Germans and fired a burst into them. There was a terrific flash and the Junkers exploded in the air. An Earlier Success.. On an earlier day operation over the El Alaincin line. Joyce’s squadron inter-i.-epte'd'u formation of Stukas. The Hurricanes hud just begun to attack when 12 Messerschmitts 109 appeared. While others of the squadron attacked the Stukas, Joyce’s flight stayed as cover. Joyce followed a Messerschmitt and destroyed it with a two-seconds burst into the cockpit. He damaged a second one with shots into the wings. While he was attacking the first enemy fighter, a Messerschmitt which was diving on him was shot down in flames by Joyce’s No. 2 pilot. In the same engagement, another New Zealander in the squadron, Sergeant A. 8. Wilson, Mid-Canterbury, shot a Stuka down in flames. The squadron’t total for the light was six destroyed, six probables, and eight damaged. The other New Zealander in the squadron is Warrant Officer It. L. Baker, Wellington, who joined the squadron at the end of last year. He has a score of two certainties. “Cobber” Kain’s respirator and scarves made from his parachute are treasured possessions of the squadron. Till recently there were many men in the ground staff who knew him during his adventures in Erance. One sergeant still with the squadron played full-back in the football team in which Kain was wing-three-quarter.