NEW ZEALAND AIRMEN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 July 1943, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND AIRMEN

DOING SPLENDID WORK IN SOLOMONS FIGHTER & RECONNAISSANCE UNITS. YOUTHFUL VETERANS FLYING OLD TYPE PLANES. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.50 p.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. “Flying old Kittyhawk fighters and Lockheed Hudson bombers, New Zealand airmen, including veterans of the Battle of Britain, the Middle East and the Malayan fighting, are now doing a fine job in the Solomons,” writes an Australian war correspondent with the United States fleet in the Southern Pacific. The correspondent pays a high tribute to the first R.N.Z.A.F. Fighter Squadron at Henderson Field, Guadalcanal. The formation is led by one of the Empire's youngest squadron leaders, the twenty-one-year-old Mike Herrick. As one of the R.A.F’s. first night fighter pilots, Herrick, who is a member of a well-known Hawke's Bay family, shot down five German bombers over London, two on his first night patrol. Two of his brothers were killed while serving in the R.A.F. Two more are serving in submarines. AH five Herrick boys have been decorated for gallantry. Another New Zealand fighter squadron, which shot down eleven Japanese aircraft in the big June battles, is led by the 23-year-old Squadron Leader Stanley Quill, of Wellington. “Also flying old model aircraft, but doing wonders, is the R.N.Z.A.F. Reconnaissance Group, which has been on Guadalcanal since early this year,” adds the correspondent. “On several occasions they have located enemy warships and guided American air striking forces. The New Zealanders’ patrols take them deep into enemyoccupied territory. They have acquired a considerable reputation among the Americans, because, although their Hudsons were not originally designed for fighting, they act as if they were flying Spitfires and go out looking for trouble. These New Zealanders live a rugged life on Guadalcanal, but their camp has improved since a New Zealand construction unit moved in to mill timber from Guadalcanal's own forests. Already more than a hundred American decorations and letters of commendation have been awarded to men in the New Zealand Air Force and Navy in the Solomons.”