NEW ZEALAND'S 75 SQUADRON

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5295, 7 January 1947, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND'S 75 SQUADRON

The Squadron hacl been over Bremen before — but this time it was different. This time it was daylight and the broken heart of the once-mighty German port they had pounded for nearly six years lay brutally bare beneath the wings of their Lancasters. Most important this time they had made ino flight across nearly a thousandc miles of enemy territory, for all the land from their English airfieid to within a scant 1500 yards of the city now lay behind the victorious Allied advance.

As they wheeled and settled on the nerve-racking steadiriess of their bombing runs, the anti-aircraft fire became intense. The aircraft were lower than usual, for with the British Arniy crouched for the final assault on the other side of the l'iver, there was no margin for error. At some time over the target every aircraft of the squadron was hit but the runs were completed an dthe Lancasters swung away to leave the inferno of Bremen behind. •Y et, even as the crews relaxed for the homeward flight, history had been made — and a story ended. Although none of the men hnew it, Bremen was the last operation of their squadron, of No. 75 (New Zealand) Squadron. Seven days later, the squadron was again airborne over the Continent, but this time when the bomb doors opened it was eanisters of food for the starving Dutch people that fell away in graceful arcs. The Curtain Falls So ended a story that began in March, 1940, when the first three Wellington bombers of 75 Squadron left in the misty dusk of an English evening for the squardon's first operation. Studding its ' pages were great r.ames — Ward, Lucas, Freeman, Breckon, Olsen and many scores more. It was a story that was perhaps best written in the cold factual entries in a hundred log-hooks, the entries that told of thousands of flights made deep into Germany to aid Bomber Command tear out the heart of the German war machine. Now the story was written and the hook closed. It had ended on a note of triumph, but the story was written and the relentless hammer stilled. With the war's end in Europe, the aircrew of the squadron immediat'ely telephoned New Zealand Headquarters in London and asked that they might fly, as a squadron, against the Japanese. With their record, approval was inevitable and they began training on Lincolns for the Pacific offensive. Half-way through their training, news came of Japan's surren.ier ard preparation ceased. Again at the request of the crews, 75 Squadron was disbanded and the title lapsed into disuse. It was as it should he for 75 had ahvays been predominantly New Zealand. If it could not continue like that then it -were better that the squadron number should not be used again. In The Air Again

* Yet to-day 75 Squadron is flying agan. The numbers are fewer, the aircraft are smaller, but the squadron s building. Most mportant, 75 Squadron has come home and now, after nearly seven years of Norfolk mist, operates from the cool green plain of the Manav/atu. Proud heai-ers of a proud name, 75 Squadron has been re-formed at Ohakea. Operating from Ohakea with four ex-Australian Mosquitoes, the trainers for the 80 latest types Avhich are to be flown from England early this year, the squadron is still small, no more than a nucleus on which to build, but it numbers amorg its crewS veterans of every air campaign of the secor-d World War. Commanded by Wing Commander J. F. Watts, D.F.C., the crews are in intensive training proparing for the 11,000-mile ferry flight v/hen they will fly their own machines to New Zealand. Many have flown Mosquitoes before, all must have at least 50 hours' flying on the type before they leave to begin the delivery flight.