TROOP TRAIN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 January 1942, Page 3

TROOP TRAIN

DESTROYED IN THAILAND YOUNG NEW ZEALANDER’S FEAT. ENGINE ATTACKED AT CLOSE RANGE. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) LONDON, January 13. A young New Zealander flying a Buffalo fighter yesterday wrecked a Japanese troop train in Thailand, reports the “Daily Express” Rangoon correspondent. The pilot leads a flight known as “Pancho’s Circus” because of his blue chin and good-looking Mexican type of face. He flew so low over the train that the plane passed through the smoke from the funnel. The train bristled with machine-guns which blazed away but the- pilot put a couple of hundred bullets into the boiler and the engine blew up, wrecking the train. It was “Pancho’s” lucky day because he also destroyed two Japanese planes on an airfield and shot up a railway station. LOSS OF AERODROMES ON THE MALAY PENINSULA. SEVERAL LANDING GROUNDS STILL HELD. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 9.40 a.m.) RUGBY, January 13. The withdrawal of the British forces from Kuala Lumpur and the establishment of a line some forty miles south of this key rubber centre is now officially confirmed in London. As regards the air position in the Malay Peninsula, it is stated that although no aerodromes now remain in British hands in the peninsula, there are still several landing grounds, while in the island of Singapore itself there are a number of aerodromes. WOUNDED IN HAWAII GOOD PROGRESS REPORTED. WASHINGTON, January 12. The commanding general of the Hawaiian department advises that 53 of the 397 soldiers wounded in the Japanese attack on December 7 have recovered and returned to duty. The early recovery of most of the others is expected.