NEW ZEALAND PILOTS

Southland Times, Issue 24878, 19 October 1942, Page 5

NEW ZEALAND PILOTS

Five Fly In One Squadron (Special Correspondent, N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 9.30 p.m.) LONDON, October 17. Five New Zealanders flying and fighting together from a famous Royal Air Force aerodrome near London are Squadron Leader J. G. C. Kilian (Christchurch), Flight-Lieutenant L. P. Griffith, D.F.C. (Levin), Pilot Officer D. A. Piggott (Auckland) and SergeantPilots W. W. Peet (Dannevirke) and F. E. Livesey (Christchurch). Squadron Leader Kilian, who is an old Christ’s College boy, commands the squadron, which is flying one of the latest types of fighter aircraft. He has been in the United Kingdom about a year, in which he achieved his present rank. He was playing cards with the rest of the boys on “readiness” when serin. He has a lively, busy squadron in which Britons, New Zealanders and Canadians are teaming splendidly. Squadron Leader Kilian is one of the quietest men on the station, but officially he is credited with one plane destroyed and one probable. He has also shared the destruction of a second plane. Flight-Lieutenant Griffith, who is at present undergoing specialized gunnery instruction from Wing-Commander A. G. Malan, the Royal Air Force’s topscorer, with 35 enemy planes, has two probables and four planes damaged to his credit. The others are shaping well.