MISSING AIRMAN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 September 1943, Page 3

MISSING AIRMAN

NEW ZEALANDER GETS BACK TO SOLOMONS BASE. 37 DAYS AFTER BEING SHOT DOWN. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) SYDNEY, September 6. After having been missing for 37 days a New Zealand air-gunnei, er geant Ganley, has returned to his base in the Solomons. He is probably the only survivor .from a plane which was shot down by Japanese fighters. The British Commissioner in the Solomons, Lieutenant-Colonel Bengough, was a passenger. , Flying low near Vella Lavella Island, the aircraft was suddenly attacked by Japanese fighters. One New Zealand gunner was wounded early, but Ganley shot down one enemy plane, while another broke oft the chase and is presumed to have crashed leaving six Japanese fighters. Bullets struck the turret, wounding Ganley in the head, hip and both arms, and wrecking his guns. Ganley manned the belly guns, but the aircraft then caught fire and the two wounded men fought the flames with extinguishers, while the Japanese continued to at-, tack. The pilot steered for the shore, but the machine struck the sea two miles from a small island. All six occupants escaped from the plane, three being wounded. Supported by his Mae West, Ganley painfully dog-paddled to the island, found water, built a shelter and attended to his wounds. He found an abandoned pilot’s dinghy in which there was chocolate, and he lived on this and coconuts for a week, hiding during a visit by a Japanese barge. After a week, Ganley paddled to a larger island, where natives fed and nursed him till an opportunity came to return to his base.