CAPABLE PILOT

Evening Star, Issue 24285, 28 August 1942, Page 4

CAPABLE PILOT

NEW ZEALANDER S FINE RECORD (N.Z.E.F, Official War Correspondent.) CAIRO, Aug. 25. By shooting down in flames a Junkers 88 night raider over the Middle East battle area yesterday, Warrantofficer E. L. Joyce, D.F.M., of Hamilton, brought his own score of enemy aircraft destroyed, to seven. This brings his squadron’s score to 288 destroyed, including 163 in the Middle East. “ Cobber ” Kain fought with .this squadron in France. Joyce is one of the three New Zealanders at present in the squadron. Ho is almost the exact opposite of Kain in stature and nature. Known among -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 his successes in almost 300 hours of flying above Egypt and Libya. A quality which amazes his fellow pilots, and one ■which has made him one of the Middle East’s most successful night fighter pilots, is his uncanny eyesight. Last night he saw a Junkers —a reconnaissance plane photographing back areas—from a distance of two miles. He dived on the Germans and fired a burst into them. There was a terrific flash, and the Junkers exploded in the air. . On an earlier operation in the daytime over the El Alamein line, War-rant-officer Joyce’s squadron intercepted a formation of Stukas. The Hurricanes had just begun to attack when 12 Messerschmitts 109 appeared. While others of the squadron attacked the Stukas, Warrant-officer Joyce’s flight stayed as a cover. He followed a Messerschmitt and destroyed it with q two-second 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 the No. 2 pilot in the flight. In the same engagement another New Zealander in the squadron, Sergeant A. S. Wilson, of Mid-Canter-hury, shot a Stuka down in flames. The squadron’s total for the fight was_ six destroyed, six probables, and eight damaged. Warrant-officer Joyce, whose brother, Private Arthur Joyce, is serving with the Auckland Battalion of the New Zealand Division, joined the R.A.F. three years after he left high school. He flew with fighter squadrons in England before coining to the Middle East ’about 16 months ago. His score includes two Junkers 88, two Messerschmitts 109, and two CR 40’s, all of them within the last four months. The other New Zealander in the squadron is Warrant-officer _R. L. ■Baket, of Wellington, who joined the squadron at the end of last year. He has a score of two certainties.

“Cobber” Rain’s _ respirator and scarves made from bis parachute are treasured possessions of the squadron. Until recently there were many men in the ground staff who knew him during his adventures in France. One sergeant who is still with the squadron played full-back in a football team in which Rain was a wing three-quarter.

SIR EARLE PAGE

SEAT IN AUSTRALIAN WAR CABINET

(Rec. 8 a.ra.) CANBERRA, Aug. 27. Sir Earle Page has been given a seat in the Australian War Cabinet. He will have no vote, but otherwise will take a full part in Cabinet’s work. This is a development of considerable political importance, since it is the first time an Opposition member has been admitted to the Cabinet.

Sir Earle Page will also be a member of the War Advisory Council. Ho was the Commonwealth representative in the United Kingdom War Cabinet.

NAZI CONVOY ATTACKED

THREE SHIPS SEVERELY DAMAGED

(British Official Wireless.)

(Rec. 0.50 a.m.) RUGBY, Aug. 27. Three enemy ships, each of 1,500 tons, were severely damaged this morning when Hurricane bombers of the Fighter Command attacked a convoy of five vessels lying off Dieppe harbour, right under the shore_ batteries. One smaller ship .was also hit. Despite heavy flak from the shore, all our planes returned safely.

FRENCH SENATE AND CHAMBER

DISSOLVING DECREE ISSUED

LONDON, August 27,

A Vichy message reports that M. Laval and Marshal Retain have issued a decree dissolving the Senate and the Chamber as permanent bodies, and they will not meet again unless specially summoned. Parliamentary government of France virtually ceased on July 11, 1940, when the National Assembly prorogued both Chambers indefinitely.

CO-OPERATION IN MEDITERRANEAN

(British Official Wireless.)

(Rec. 1.25 p.m.) (RUGBY, Aug. 27. Admiral Harwood, in an interview, disclosed that important steps had been taken in the Mediterranean to improve the co-operation between British naval and air forces. A new organisation is to be set up for this purpose. He said that if the Allies could retake Cyrenaica a large British air force in the Mediterranean would be able to operate far from the mainland, and this, backed by surface and submarine craft, should prevent Axis supplies from reaching Africa.

LIQUOR IN AUSTRALIA

NEW RESTRICTIVE LEGISLATION

SYDNEY, August 27,

Any person in New South Wales drinking in a park or street between 6 p.m. and 11 a.m. will be liable to prosecution under the new liquor regulations. Hotel trading hours in the metropolitan area will be from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and women are prohibited from being served at the bars of wine saloons.