ESCAPE FROM JAVA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 April 1942, Page 3

ESCAPE FROM JAVA

IN DAMAGED BOMBER MADE BY FOUR EMPIRE AIRMEN. INCLUDING NEW ZEALANDER. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) SYDNEY, April 12. Four sergeant pilots, a New Zealander, a Canadian and two New South Welshmen, escaped from Java in a patched-up Lockheed bomber. The New Zealander was Sergeant Pilot Douglas Jones (presumably Sergeant Pilot Douglas Loftus Jones, Christchurch). The pilots’found a badly-damaged bomber on an abandoned airfield and made it serviceable with pieces of bamboo and parts from two other wrecked machines. Then they flew the bomber to northern Sumatra and to Colombo, a distance of 2500 miles. The four airmen were in Goreot when the Japanese surrounded the town. They commandeered a truck and escaped toward Pameungpeuk, on the south-west coast of Java. Fifteen miles from Pameungpeuk they were caught by the Japanese and placed under guard, but they immediately escaped in the truck and eventually arrived at Pameungpeuk. There they found three Lockheeds which had been damaged by the Dutch and made one serviceable within 24 hours and flew to Medan, where they refuelled and left the asme day for Colombo.