FIGHTER AIRCRAFT.
NEW ROLE IN WARFARE. (P.A.) WELLINGTON, May 29. “The day of big individual scores by a fighter pilot in this war is passing,” said Wing Commander W. V. Craw-ford-Compton, one of New Zealand’s foremost fighter pilots in this war, who is visiting Wellington during his furough in the Dominion. “Fighter aircraft,” he said, “are becoming more and more flying artillery, and war in the air to be a matter of a slogging match and very hard slogging too. The day of big scores really finished with the Batle of Britain, and the work of strafing and low-level bombing which our fighters are now doing is much more valuable than any combat as between aircraft. It is possible for modern fighter aircraft on a strafing or rocket attack or a low-level bombing run to kill as many as 100 enemy, and not at all unusual for one fighter to finish off 20 men in a trip. In air combat, even if you do shoot down an enemy fighter, it is one man killed at the most.’
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Ashburton Guardian, Volume 65, Issue 195, 31 May 1945, Page 2
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177FIGHTER AIRCRAFT. Ashburton Guardian, Volume 65, Issue 195, 31 May 1945, Page 2
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