PLANE SALVAGE FEATS
CREWS IN NEW GUINEA MANY MACHINES SAVED (Special Australian Correspondent.) <lO a.m.) SYDNEY, June 5. Miracles of maintenance and salvage are being performed by the Allied air force ground staffs in the New Guinea bush workshops. The engine fitters and instrument repairers can work in the aircraft for only limited periods, since the temperature inside thd fuselage is well over 120 degrees Fahrenheit, causing perspiration to pour from the men’s bodies. Wrenches and spanners become too hot to handle with comfort.
The Australian ground staff of a Boston medium bomber unit point with pride to a battle-scarred plane which was saved from the scrap heap by their ingenuity. Badly damaged over Salamaua, the bomber turned on its side in landing and the fuselage was badly ripped. The plane, with a fine record of operational missions against the Japanese, was the unit’s favourite, and the maintenance men refused to send it to the scrap heap. They welded a whole side from another damaged plane on to the veteran, which was in the air again within six weeks. “Without these, men we could never get over the target,” declared the commanding officer, who is a great admirer of the work of his ground crew.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/GISH19430605.2.52
Bibliographic details
Gisborne Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21113, 5 June 1943, Page 3
Word Count
205PLANE SALVAGE FEATS Gisborne Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21113, 5 June 1943, Page 3
Using This Item
The Gisborne Herald Company is the copyright owner for the Gisborne Herald. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of the Gisborne Herald Company. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in