HEROIC WORK
OF UNARMED AUSTRALIAN PILOTS HUNDREDS OF LIVES SAVED. SINCE WAR WITH JAPAN BEGAN. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) MELBOURNE. March 25. Running the gauntlet of enemy bullets and bombs, Australian civil pilots, in unarmed and comparatively slow machines, have saved hundreds of Australian lives since ■ the war with Japan began, states the Department of Air. Others have risked their lives by flying aircraft heavily laden with essential materials from the mainland to military areas in New Guinea. Java, Timor and other places. The story of their heroism during the bombing of Darwin, Broome and New Guinea, and the part they have played in the evacuation of women and children from the threatened areas is told in reports which have been received by the Minister of Air, Mr Drakeford. In eight days 762 persons, most of them women and children, were evacuated from New Guinea to the mainland in two civil aircraft, one w'hich carried an average of 301 persons per trip and the other an average cf just over 16 persons per trip. During these operations there was not a single casualty. Magnificent work done by the staff of the flying-boat base during the air raids on Darwin has probably saved the lives of 100 to 150 mercantile marine personnel. These men were rescued from the harbour and jetty in two launches, which were finally sunk by enemy action. The launches operated during a bombing attack and under constant machine-gun fire and in the vicinity of a ship which was set on fire.
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Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 March 1942, Page 2
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254HEROIC WORK Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 March 1942, Page 2
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