HECTIC MOMENTS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 249, 18 September 1940, Page 7

HECTIC MOMENTS.

NEW ZEALANDERS’ FLIGHTS,

(British Official Wireless.) ituUni, bept. 16,

The Dominions were strongo represented in iaot nignt s aaventumus lngnts t>y tne Koyul air force over Germany.One of the angriest men in fine K it.n . is a iNew Zealand wing communuer who was within five minutes' uying distance or lus main target in Ueinn when une of his engines froze. “1 had to let go my bonius on an alternative objective," lie said, “and I flew up out ot the sou}) on one engine. AI Ur about 10 minutes the otner engine picked up again, and we beaded lor nome. ' ‘

“1 never before have had such a pasting as we had over Bremen on the way back.” lie said. “Our tailplane was riddled. A piece of shrapnelcame into the cockpit, tore fur from the pilot’s collar, hit the armourplating behind his seat, tore some iur from the observer’s flying suit, and then landed on the navigator’s table. The second pilot, also a New Zealander, was in the front of the machine, and a piece of metal came through the glass at one side, whizzed past his nose and went 'out the other side. It missed him by a fraction of an inch.

A pilot from Ottawa also told of a 7000 ft dive near the mouth of the Elbe with his controls frozen. “I was in the front turret at the time testing the gun and looking out to see what kind of landfall we were making,” lie said. “Suddenly I realised from the rush of wind that we were in a dive and spinning slightly. I scrambled back to the cockpit. It felt like climbing a wall. “I found the second nilot trying Ins hardest to get the machine back on a level keel. I got alongside him and helped him to pull, and at about 7000 ft the aircraft came out. hut not before the fabric had been stripped off the ailerons and part of the main plane. I dropped my bombs into the sea and came back the 300 miles or so to my base.” , Another New Zealander figured m a third incident. While over Berlin he was searching for his target w'hen one of his engines stopped. They continued to search for 10 minutes and found the Tempelhof aerodrome, and they dropped their bombs on it and turned for home.