HEROIC AIRMAN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 October 1943, Page 4

HEROIC AIRMAN

AUSTRALIAN AWARDED V.C. SERIES OF VALIANT EXPLOITS DID ALL THAT MAN COULD DO. SHINING EXAMPLE TO ALL WHO FOLLOW. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.25 a.m.) RUGBY, October 19. A tale of courage which, in the words cf the official citation, has rarely been excelled, and will serve as a shining inspiration to all who follow him, resulted in the award cf the V.C. to Flight Lieutenant W. F. Newton, R.A.A.F., in circumstances unhappily causing grave doubts as to his survival. Newton's last recorded operation was one in which, after a succesful attack on a building, his aircraft burst into flames. He maintained control and calmly turned his aircraft away and flew along the shore. He tried to do all he could to take his crew as far away as possible from the enemy’s positions. With great skill he brought the blazing aircraft down on the water. Two members of the crew were able to extricate themselves, and were seen swimming to the shore, but the gallant pilot is missing. According to other air crews, his escape hatch was not opened and his dinghy was not inflated. Without regard to his own safety, he had done all a man could do to prevent his crew falling into enemy hands.

Newton served with the No. 22 Squadron of the R.A.A.F. in New Guinea from May, 1942, to March, 1943, and completed 52 operational sorties. The citation says: “Throughout he displayed great courage and an iron determination to inflict the utmost damage on the enemy. His brilliant offensive flying and fighting were attended with signal success. Disdaining evasive tactics under the heaviest fire, he always went straight to his objective and carried out many daring machinegun attacks on enemy positions, involving low-flying over long distances in face of continuous fire at point-blank range. On three occasions he dived through anti-aircraft fire to release bombs on an important target in the Salamaua Isthmus. On one of these occasions, his starboard engine failed over the target, but he succeeded in flying back to an airfield 160 miles away. When leading an attack on another objective, he dived through inaircraft was hit repeatedly. Neverthetense and accurate shellfire, and his less, he held his course and bombed the target from a low level. The attack resulted in the destruction of many buildings and dumps, including two 40,000 gallon fuel installations. Although his aircraft was crippled, with its fuselage and wing sections torn, petrol tanks pierced, main planes and engines seriously damaged, and one of the main tires flat, Newton managed to fly it back to its base and to make a successful landing. On the following day he returned to the locality, and, as recorded above, his aircraft caught fire.”