DOMINIONS' PART

Taranaki Daily News, 18 September 1940, Page 7

DOMINIONS' PART

By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.

British Official Wireless.

STRONGLY REPRESENTED ANGRY NEW ZEALANDER FOILED NEAR HIS TARGET

Rec. 5.5 p.m. Rugby, Sept. 16. The Dominions were strongly represented in Sunday night's adventurous flight by the Royal Air Force over Germany. One of the angriest men in the Royal Air Force is a New Zealand wing-commander who was within five minutes flying distance of his main target at Berlin when one of his engines froze. "I had to let go my bombs on alternative objectives," he said, "and flew up out of soup on one engine. After about ten minutes the other engine picked up again and we headed for home. 1 have never had such a pasting as over Bremen on the way back. The tailplane was riddled." A piece of shrapnel came into the cockpit, tore fur from the pilots collar, hit the armour-plating behind the seat, tore some fur 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. A pilot from Ottawa also told of a 7000-foot dive near the mouth of the Elbe with the controls frozen. "I was in the front- turret at the time, testing the gun and looking out to see what kind of a landfall we were making," he said. "Suddenly I realised from the rush of wind that we were in a dive and spinning slightly. I scrambled back to the cockpit. I found the pilot trying his hardest to get the machine back on a level keel. I got alongside him and helped to pull, and at about 7000 feet the aircraft came out, but 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 in a third incident. While over Berlin he was searching for his target when one of his engines stopped. They continued to search for his target. They searched for 10 minutes, found the Tempelhof aerodrome. dropped their bombs on it and turned for home.