NEW ZEALAND AIRMEN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 November 1942, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND AIRMEN

PART IN NORTH AFRICAN LANDINGS CARRIER ESCAPES DAMAGE. IN ATTACK BY GERMAN DIVE-BOMBERS. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.45 a.m. ) ALGIERS, November 23. Four New Zealanders, members of the Fleet Air Arm, described their .part in the seizure .of Algiers as “a routine exercise in which we were not called on to fire a shot,” but they had a share of excitement later when their aircraftcarrier was dive-bombed. They were Sub-Lieutenants Lloyd Johnson, of Christchurch. Jack Blacker, of Auckland, Donald Cameron and J. Hale, of Wellington. Sub-Lieutenant Hale, who is 22 years of age, is the quartet's “father.” Their carrier was briefed to give fighter cover for landings. Sub-Lieutenant Johnson said: “For several days we took off and patrolled the coastline and aerodromes, and did not sight a single air-borne aircraft. Only four of our chaps got ashore, because it was too dark for them to land on the flight deck. There was more than one alert, but apart from gunfire from the escorting destroyers nothing happened until the third night off Algiers. Then, just as dusk was giving way to night, fifteen Junkers 88’s were sighted. We prepared for highlevel bombing, but they peeled off and came down, hell for leather, from astern. Waves thrown up by near misses flooded the flight deck, but the ‘Old Man' was throwing the carrier about like a destroyer, and when the Nazis roared off and the clouds of spray and smoke dispersed, we were little the worse for wear.”

The four New Zealanders were able to make up for the lack of action over Africa by manning a Vickers gun and loosing off at the dive-bombers, although they admitted that their efforts were more energetic than accurate. Sub-Lieutenant Johnson, sporting a scar on his nose, on being questioned admitted that it was the result of a slight mishap. During landing practice his fighter “jumped a bit,” and finished up on the edge of the flight deck, then slowly toppled into the sea. Sub-Lieu-tenant Blacker remarked: “You never saw a chap scramble out of a plane faster than he did. We -fished him out and the doctor welcomed him with open arms. That’s the result —the neatest patched nose you will find anywhere.”