PERILOUS FLIGHT

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 28, 28 October 1942, Page 8

PERILOUS FLIGHT

Waikato Air-Gunner HIT BY INCENDIARY Dominion Special Service. AUCKLAND, October 27. The story of a perilous Hight Is told by Flight Sergeant Alan Ixtwis, formerly of Hamilton, an air-gunner who has had 43 operational Hights in a bomber of a New Zealand squadron. Writing to Mr. W. J. MeMiken, of Silverdale, Flight Sergeant Lewis said thrtt when on a trip over Dusseldorf and about to bomb, his machine was hit by flak on (fie rudder. Soon after this he was hit by an incendiary bomb dropped by a British plane high above. The bomb was found afterward in the turret, which was rendered useless. The controls were snapped off, and one gun was smashed. As the incendiary passed through the ’machine it hit Flight Sergeant Lewis on the side of the head and then went through Ills left hand, which was on the controls. He managed to get out of the turret and lie down on.the bed all the way home. The wireless operator rendered first-aid and an ambulance met the machine when it landed.

Flight Sergeant Lewis said he was sent to a,first-class hospital, where he was operated on. His left arm was.fracturedand four fingers of the left hand had to be amputated. The head wound was not serious, but when he wrote he was still a little' deaf. Describing the hospital as a wonderful place, Flight Sergeant Lewis said he had received the best of everything. He hoped to receive the commission he had qualified for before his misadventure, and to be able to resume duty with the ground staff.

A Welsh public school boy, Flight Sergeant’Lewis was employed in Mr. McMiken’s. orchards at Silverdale before joining the Royal New Zealand Air Force, in February, 1940. He was then 28, lie was well known in musical circles in Hamilton.