FIGHTING SPIRIT

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 3268, 26 May 1943, Page 8

FIGHTING SPIRIT

A JOB OF WORK TO DO R.N.Z.A.F. IN THE PACIFIC To the readers of popular fiction the South Sea Islands are places of glamour, romance and beauty. To the a’' - erage member of the R.N.Z.A.F. serving in the South-west Pacific they mean just another place to do a job of work.

Not that our airmen are unappreciative of their surroundings. Indeed, one could hardly fail to appreciate them —in more ways than one, and not always pleasantly. But there is no doubt the largest thing which looms in their lives is the task they have to do. Flying operations must be carried out, aircraft must be maintained, supplies provided, records kept and all the familiar activities associated with an operational station of the B.N.Z:A.F. have to be carried on. That is the complete and all-absorbing task. With some units, based on islands more remote from actual war operations, these duties may tend to become somewhat routine in their nature. But in such places you will find that officers and men alike temper any t possible boredom with the thought —which is, of course, fathered by the wish: “Well, you can never tell—the Japs, may come this way.” And if at times this should appear to be rather remote as a possibility, they continue to seek the utmost efficiency in the hope that they will ultimately be transferred to some place where they “can have acrack at ’em.”

The most envied units, of course,, are those engaged in the actual zone' of war operations. They have seen the enemy. They have attacked him. And' so theyt have realised • one of their greatest wishes. ’ The purpose of all their training and all their hard work" has been achieved.