KITTYHAWK FIGHTER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 September 1942, Page 3

KITTYHAWK FIGHTER

BETTER THAN THE ZERO ACCORDING TO GENERAL KENNY. OUTLOOK IN PACIFIC AIR WAR. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) SYDNEY, September 16. “I have yet to meet the Australian or American pilot who would trade his Kittyhawk for a Zero,” Major-General G. C. Kenny, the new commander of the Allied Air Forces in the SouthWest Pacific, said today. Refuting the suggestion from the United States that the American fighters are inferior, he stated that the Kittyhawks are better armoured than the Zeros, and have bulletproof tanks. “This enables us to get to close quarters with the Japanese and slug it out,” he added. “When, the Zero catches a good burst from our fighters he just crumples up, but I have seen one of our planes return to its base with almost 300 bullet holes in the fuselage.” General Kenny said that generally the Japanese pilots are highly trained, skilful and daring, but their air force contains a strange mixture of good and bad flyers. Questioned about the progress of the air war in this theatre, General Kenny said: “It would be the biggest mistake in the - world to under-estimate the opposition, but the Allied airmen are shooting down more planes than they are losing themselves.” General Kenny’s last assignment was an operational command in the United States. He is 53 years of age and was a reconnaissance pilot in the last war, in which he was twice decorated. He was promoted major-general in February. Major-General Ralph Boyce,, who led the famous air raid on the Philippines, and who is Lieutenant-General Brett’s chief of staff, has also returned to America.