N.Z. PILOTS IN DESERT

Southland Times, Issue 24837, 1 September 1942, Page 5

N.Z. PILOTS IN DESERT

INACTIVITY DETESTED (Official War Correspondent) WESTERN DESERT, Aug. 28. New Zealand fighter pilots are flying with men of the Empire in the Royal Air Force’s battle against the Luftwaffe over Egypt. Day and night they are over the Western Desert, flying Hurricanes, Spitfires and Kittyhawks in sweeps, bomber escorts and dive-bomb-ing raids. No New Zealand squadrons are operating in the Middle East, but in almost every Royal Air Force fighter and fighter-bomber squadron there is at least one Kiwi pilot. Their flying experience varies as widely as their civil occupations. Some are sheep farmers who left back-cpuntry runs to fight in the Battle of Britain. Others came from city offices and warehouses. They were trained under the Empire scheme in Canada and England and have been posted to the Middle East for their first operational flights. A few have won “gongs,” as pilots call their Distinguished Flying Crosses and medals. Many are waiting to get the first German plane in their sights. During the lull on the El Alamein front I have spoken to several of these New Zealand pilots who fly from dusty patches of desert that are Royal Air Force advanced landing grounds. They are all keen to be operating over the land battle in which the New Zealanders are taking part. Their attitude is the same as the men of the division. They hate inactivity. “The sooner we get this job over the sooner we will be able to get out and tackle the Japanese,” they say. EXPERIENCED PILOT One of the most experienced New Zealand pilots now flying in the desert is Flight Lieutenant Victor Verity, D.F.C., a Timaru farmer, who was with the fighter squadrons in France and in the Battle of Britain. He has been posted missing twice, once during the evacuation of Dunkirk, but he returned across the Channel on both occasions. A night fighter pilot of long experience, he is now attached to a Hurricane squadron which searches for German night-bombers over Egypt. Warrant Officer E. L. Joyce, of Hamilton, who has shot down three Junkers 88’s at night, is in the same squadron. Four New Zealanders, trained under the Empire scheme, are now flying Kitty-bombers in the famous Shark Squadron. They are: Sergeant-Pilots T. H. Morrison (Auckland), H. E. Thomas (Masterton), R. H. Newton (Wellington) and C. Young (Bulls). Earlier in this campaign their squadron made as many as six bombing and strafing raids a day, many of them over the New Zealand sector of the front line. Sergeants Morrison, Thomas and Young trained in Canada last year and Sergeant Newton went directly to England from New Zealand last August. Pilot Officer J. S. Hepburn (MidCanterbury) and Sergeant-Pilot K. G. Allington (Hastings) are the only New Zealanders in the Hurricane squadrons at present in day operations over the desert. Sergeant-Pilot Allington flew Spitfires from stations on the south coast of England and in the Orkney Islands before he came to the Middle East in time for the hectic days of withdrawal from Libya. In 12 days he flew from 11 landing grounds. “MAN WITH CAT’S EYES” (Rec. 6.30 p.m.) RUGBY, August 30. Known throughout the Western Desert ■as the “Man with the cat’s eyes,” Warrant Officer E. L. Joyce, D.F.M., destroyed a Junkers 88 on Saturday night. Warrant Officer Joyce, who is a New Zealandei’ from Hamilton, thus brings his total to eight enemy aircarf’t destroyed—four at - night.