MAJOR PART

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 June 1943, Page 3

MAJOR PART

PLAYED BY NEW ZEALAND AIRMEN IN DEFEAT OF JAPANESE RAID ON BENGAL. DESTRUCTION OF ENEMY BOMBERS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) CALCUTTA, June 2. New Zealand fighter pilots played a major part in the smashing defeat of a strong Japanese raiding force over Chittagong, Bengal. Diving from more than 20,000 feet on 31 enemy bombers and fighters, 14 R.A.F. Hurricanes destroyed or damaged 13. Two more fell to anti-aircraft fire. Seven of the R.A.F. pilots were New Zealanders. Two British machines were lost, but the pilots of both were saved. One of them was Flight Sergeant John Rudling, a former Auckland bank clerk, who baled out when his cockpit caught fire. Villagers gave him a royal welcome. A woman who had been wounded by a Japanese strafing plane insisted on kissing his feet. The natives sent him back to his base by horseback and sampan.

Flying Officer Robert Stout crashed a Japanese bombpr by striking it with the wing-tip of his Hurricane. He brought his own plane safely back to its base. Flying Officer Anthony Cooper, Wanganui, led one of the Hurricane formations, and destroyed a Japanese fighter. Flying Officer V. Jacobs, a former Auckland school teacher, damaged two fighters and probably destroyed one bomber.