NOW AT NAPLES

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 3280, 25 June 1943, Page 4

NOW AT NAPLES

FLYING-OFFICER S. SHORT EARLIER EXPERIENCES WELL TREATED IN HOSPITAL Details of the action in which Fly-ing-Officer Sydney A. H. Short, son of Mr T. Short, Paeroa, and the latd Mrs Ruby Short, won the Distinguished Flying Cross are not yet to hand, but describing an earlier experience with the enemy over Algiers, he - writes:— “My mate and I met four 109’s, but they were too good for us and shot us down. My aircraft caught fire in the air and was too low for me to bale out so I was forced to crash-land. My head was rather badly bruised on the gunsight, and owing to a shell •bursting in the cockpit, I collected some shrapnel wounds in the left hand.” Flying-Officer Short was only a week in hospital and very shortly again in action. He was reported , missing in February and reclassified as P.O.W. five weeks later. It was this action which won for him the Distinguished Flying* Cross. A report from the International Red Cross stated that Flying-Officer Short was in an • Italian hospital slightlywounded. In a P.O.W. card written from Italy, Flying-Officer Short says that he has been transferred to another hospital near Naples and is being well treated. “My left leg is not too good at present, the nerves being slightly damaged,” he continues. “The doctor says it will be O.K. with massage and time. I hope so. I am not badly off compared with some. There are a couple of New Zealand lads here among the troops and several Australians who have been very decent, and showh me the ropes. When lam well it is possible that I may go to Germany.”,