HIDDEN PLANES
HONGKONG RESCUES
CLIPPER CAPTAIN'S STORY A small fleet of planes, hidden from Japanese bombers under a camouflage of straw, evacuated 21 o men and women and 100 children from Hongkong. The storv of this air rescue is told by the captain of the Pan-American Airwavs flving-boat Hongkong Clipper, which was destroyed in the bombing of Kowloon. The captain got away from Hongkong in the last night plane to ieave for Chungking. When the raids on Kowloon and Hongkong became intense all available" planes were scattered among Chinese huts and camouflaged with straw. As soon as it was dark the rescue planes took off one by one loaded with passengers. All that night and the next night, with an overcast sky. the planes flew through the blackout, often under intense firing from the ground, until they reached the safety of a Chinese inland village. Telling of the Japanese raids on Kowloon. in which his Clipper was destroyed, the captain, who is now in New York, said he saved his life by standing-waist deep in water behind a concrete post amid a hail of machine-gun bullets. At last the Japanese hit the Clipper. It burst into flames at its berth.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19420409.2.125
Bibliographic details
Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 83, 9 April 1942, Page 8
Word Count
200HIDDEN PLANES Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 83, 9 April 1942, Page 8
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