GALLANT AIRMAN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 November 1943, Page 4

GALLANT AIRMAN

DUTCHMAN DECORATED IN AUSTRALIA

At an Investiture held by Lord Gowrie, Governor-General of Australia, on October 29 last, Lieutenant Fisscher, Royal Netherlands Air Force, was decorated with the Distinguished Flying Cross “for exceptional devotion to duty in the face of the enemy.” Fisscher, who was an ensign at the time he earned the D.F.C., was second pilot and observer of a bomber- carrying out a bombing raid over Timor in February last. The plane was attacked by five Zeros of which three were beaten off. The other two continued the attack and the bomber’s port engine was put out of commission. Fifty feet above sea level the pilot and nosegunner were killed and with great difficulty Lieutenant Fisscher took over the controls. The attack on the crippled plane continued until the vertical stabilo was shot off. The starboard engine was also put out of action and the bomber was forced to alight on the water. A perfect “three-point” landing was made. Fisscher and one other member of the crew scrambled out and helped the two other crew members —one was an Australian and the other , was a fellow-, Dutchman—to escape from the fastsinking bomber by smashing the centre turret, which was made of bullet-de-j fleeting glass, with his bare fist. All this took place in the space of two and a half minutes, after which the halfsubmerged aircraft finally sank. After seven hours the survivors, all of whom were slightly wounded, were sighted by other planes and eighteen hours later they were picked up by an Australian warship. I