VALUABLE WORK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 January 1943, Page 3

VALUABLE WORK

DONE BY NEW ZEALAND AIRMEN UNDER AMERICAN COMMAND IN PACIFIC. ADMIRAL’S COMMENDATION. (Official War Correspondent. N.Z.E.F.) AN ADVANCE PACIFIC BASE, December 19. Squadrons of the Royal New Zealand Air Force operating along the South Pacific war supply routes and into the Solomons zone itself are the first complete units of the Dominion’s armed forces to serve in any theatre of operations under United States command.

The high-ranking United States Navy Officer under whom they serve is well pleased with them. He is Rear-admiral William Fitch, commander of aircraft in the South Pacific Forces, who said of his New Zealand units today: “They are a credit to themselves and to their country.” Long reconnaissance and anti-sub-marine patrol flights calling for a high degree of navigational skill and airmanship are among the duties assigned to the New Zealand squadrons. Exactly how and where they are operating may never, in view of the very nature of their work, be made known to the public. But Rear-Admiral Fitch, when I interviewed him today, agreed that the Dominion might find satisfaction in knowing that its air forces in the South Pacific were carrying out important tasks in a highly creditable way. At the head of a force' which is winning renown with a conspicuous absense of verbal fanfare, Rear-Admiral Fitch chooses his quiet words carefully. There was no trace of flattery in the compliment he paid to the New Zealanders. "They are doing a verynice job,” he declared. “They have a sound conception of what is required of them, and they are carrying it out in a most satisfactory way. I am sure that whatever demands may be made of them in the future, they will meet those demands with the same efficiency and spirit of co-operation.”

The commander said he realised the monotony of some of the operations which New Zealanders were carrying out in areas comparatively distant from the actual combat zone, and he understood their eagerness to take a place in the front line. They might feel that they .are out of the picture, he added, but the work they were doing was nevertheless highly important. All of the New Zealand units were performing their tasks in a manner that brought credit to themselves and to their country. Rear-Admiral Fitch said he treated the New Zealand squadrons exactly as he did the United States forces under his command. He made no differentiation between them, and he was pleased with the spirit of mutual co-operation that existed. When the time came to reward individual men with decorations or citations for outstanding performances, he would place the New Zealander on exactly the same basis as the American airman, the comman-l der concluded.