FORTY SCALPS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 April 1941, Page 6

FORTY SCALPS

DESERT AIR SQUADRON'S SUCCESS. • i “Wo go over Libya. If'wo see any-?' thing in the air we shoot it down.” A i young South African, who before join- 1 ing the R.A.F. was a company sccrc- 1 tary in Johannesburg, thus laconically 1 summed up the task cf the pilots at. a < British fighter base in the desert, says 1 Reuter's special correspondent at this 1 base. It is impossible to realise the extent ’ of the Empire's participation .in the f R.A.F's. offensive in Libya unless one has visited .some of the British desert ' air outposts, says the correspondent. • From them daily and. nightly, lighter and bomber patrols go soaring over c Italian territory and beating down the Italian Air Force. t The aerodrome, where the corres- j pondent wrote this dispatch, was parti- j cularly representative of the Empire, f .having one Canadian and six South s African pilots. Others came from In- t dia and all parts of Great Britain. This single squadron lias a record of x about 40 Italian planes shot down for [ certain since the beginning of the British "blitz" and more than 70 since the v beginning cf the war.

While the Italian pilots seem to have little heart for a light, says the correspondent, the Italian anti-aircraft fire is “not bad.” according to the British pilots.