N.Z. PILOTS' FEATS

Grey River Argus, 4 June 1943, Page 5

N.Z. PILOTS' FEATS

JAP AIR RAIDS IN INDIA. SMASHING DEFEAT OF ENEMY. (Rec. 9.40.) CALCUTTA, June 2. The New Zealand fighter pilots played a major part in a smashing defeat on a strong Japanese air force which made a raid over Chittagong, in Bengal. Diving from more than twenty thousand feet on thirty-one enemy bombers and fighters, fourteen R.A.F, Hurricanes destroyed or damaged thirteen. Two more 1 fell anti-aircraft fire. Seven of the R.A.F. pilots were New Zealanders. Two British machines were lost. The pilots of both were saved. One of them was Flight Sergeant John Rud? ling, a former Auckland bank clerk, who bailed out when his cockpit caught fire. Villages gave him a royal welcome. Women who had been wounded by a Japanese strafing plane, insisted on kissing his feet. Natives sent him back to his. base, by horseback and sampan. Flying Officer Robert Stout crashed a Japanese bombed bv striking it with the wingtip of his Hurricane. He brought his own plane safelv back to its base. Flying Officer Anthony Cooper, of Wanganui, led one of the Hurricane formations, and destroyed a Japanese fighter. Flying Officer V. Jacobs, a former Auckland school teacher, damaged two fighters, and probably destroyed one bomber.