THREE NEW ZEALANDERS

Evening Star, Issue 24286, 29 August 1942, Page 4

THREE NEW ZEALANDERS

VETERANS OF THE FIGHTER SWEEPS FINE RECORD OF DUNEDIN MAN (N.Z.E.F. Official War Correspondent.) DESERT LANDING GROUND, , August 26. Three New Zealaudels, two of them veterans of the fighter sweeps over France, are now flying Spitfires over the Western Desert in the famous County of London Squadron. One of them, who commands a flight in the squadron, has already shot down two Junkers 88’s in desert operations, and all three have taken part in many raids over the El Alamein line.

Flight-lieutenant M. R. B. Ingram (Dunedin) flew in about 40 fighter sweeps with bomber escorts over France and was also on convoy, patrols off the English coast before he joined the County of London Squadron on its way to Malta. After about two months on the island fortress he flew to the Western Desert, where his successes against two German reconnaissance planes brought his total score to five destroyed and two or three damaged. Botli the Junkers 88’s, which he attacked at about 25,000 ft, were reported by the army as shot down behind the El Alamein line before he returned to his landing ground. He has a total of about 650 flying hours, including 200 on operations Flying with Ingram is Pilot-officer L. J. Frecklington, a Manawatu farmer, who is one of the 'original members of the New Zealand Spitfire squadron in England. Frecklington joined the R.A.F. in May, 1940. and finished his training in time to be given the Manawatu Spitfire in the newly-formed squadron. In his first raids across the Channel he flew behind Wing-comman-der Wills, D. 5.0,, D.F.C. and bar, and now commands the New Zealand squadron. Between June and September of last year Frecklington was in 32 sweeps with bomber escorts over France, flying in every operation the squadron made in sis weeks. He was commissioned and posted to Aden before the beginning of operational flying again early this year. His experience with Spitfires gained him a place in the County of London squadron—the old peace-time squadron which fought through the Battle of Britain. The third New Zealander is the wellknown Wellington racing cyclist, Ser-geant-pilot A. H. Sowerby, of Johnsonville. Sowerby left England in April to begin his operational flying with the squadron. During his five months’ training in Canada he was one of the first New Zealand pilots to visit New York and Ottawa. The lull on the front and the decrease in enemy air activity have given him little opportunity to open his score. The greatest sight he has seen in the Middle East, says Sowerby, was the arrival of the New Zealand troops in the desert during the time the squadron was moving back two months ago. Like' most R.A.F. fighter squadrons in the desert, the County of London includes men from all the dominions, as well as a South American and one American from Texas, who joined up in Canada.