UNSUNG AIR HEROES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20101, 22 November 1939, Page 5

UNSUNG AIR HEROES

INDIVIDUALITY LOST TEAM FLYING THE AIM LONDON, Nov. 7. If the public demands air heroes in this war it is not likely to be gratified yet. Apart from the ban on names and the present regulation forbidding direct quotation of interviews with even anonymous members of the crews engaged in combat, the official expectation is that this war will not offer the same opportunities of individual distinction as did the last war. In the Great War there was a measure of free-lancing and independent operation, making for such illustrious names as those which Bishop, Ball and Richthofen created when the technique of air fighting was being evolved. There are officers serving again who went up in 1915 in 70 miles an hour aeroplanes and engaged in close-range duels with carbines. Now that it is a matter only of seconds between the fighters sighting each other and, with thumb pressure, firing eight machine-guns simultaneously, it is thought that the height, speed and brevity of combat between fighters will make it like land warfare —more a matter of teamwork. There has so far been none of the risky, but chivalrous, contact of the last war between air enemies, such as pilots crossing the lines and dropping messages announcing the fate of some airman brought down by either side.