INJURED N.Z. AIRMAN

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20044, 16 September 1939, Page 9

INJURED N.Z. AIRMAN

SHOT DOWN OVER KIEL IN GERMAN HOSPITAL BROADCAST TO DOMINION (Per Press Assoeiatiou.l HAWERA, this day. According to a shore-wave message from a German broadcasting station at 12.10 p.m. yesterday Pilot-Officer L. H. Edwards, of Patea, who was posied as missing following the raid on Wilhelmshaven and Kiel during the first day of the war, is at present an inmate of a German hospital suffering from burns on the face and minor injuries. Two of his companions in the bomber are all in the same hospital. The broadcast was picked up by several people. All the rescued men were Siated to have spoken a few words in English during an interview with the German ' announcer in- the hospital. Pilot-Officer Edwards, in his message, described how he was shot down and, with his two companions, was rescued by the crew of a German plane. “It is hard to remember exactly what happened,” said Pilot-Officer Edwards. “It was all so sudden. We wete shot down and thrown into the water and my face was badly burned.” The other members of the crew of the bomber, a flight-sergeant from Yorkshire and a man from County Tipperary, Ireland, were also injured, one receiving a broken jaw and the other an injury to his foot. Upon reaching the water the three men began to swim and a Germaifi plane descended and rescued all of, them at once. They were admitted to the hospital from which the broadcast was made. Question and Answer According to a message from Wellington the broadcast by PilotOfficer Edwards was in the form of question and answer, those taking part being Pilot-Officer Edwards, Sergeant. Slattery, of Tipperary, Ireland, and Aircraftman george Booth, of Yorkshire, and the German announcer.

Questions were asked and answered and then respoken by the announcer in the German language. Sergeant Slattery, who has an injured jaw and Aircraftman Booth, whose foot was broken in the crash into the sea, also spoke, • apparently from the hospital, of the good treatment they were receiving and thanked their rescuers for the risks, they had run in picking them. up. The broadcast did not give any indicaton of the date or place of the crash into the sea, nor of their place of detention. The authorities in Wellington have no cabled information of the rescue

of Pilot-Officer Edwards, though under international custom the names and state of prisoners of war are to be notified with little delay. However, the lists may be delayed for days nid even weeks or months. There is reason for the highest hope that Pilot-Officer Edwards and his companions are safe. He is a son of Mr. and Mrs. C. A. Edwards, of Patea. They have been advised of the broadcast from Germany.