GREAT WORKERS

Grey River Argus, 8 June 1943, Page 5

GREAT WORKERS

ON NEW GUINEA FRONT. AIR FORCE GROUND STAFFS. (Special to N.Z. Press Assn). SYDNEY, June 7. Miracles of maintenance and salvage are being performed by Allied air force ground staffs in New Guinea bush workshops. Engine litters and instrument repairers can work in aircraft for only limited periods, since the temperature inside of the fuselage is well over one hundred and twenty degrees Fahrenheit, causing perspiration to pour from the men’s bodies. The 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 has been saved from the scrapheap by their ingenuity. Badlv damaged over Salamaua, this _ bomber turned on its side when 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 the whole side of another damaged plane on to the veteran, which was in the air again within six months. “Without these men, we could never get over the target,” declared the commanding officer, who is the greatest admirer of the work of his ground crew.