GRIM COMBAT

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 187, 10 August 1942, Page 5

GRIM COMBAT

flying FORTRESS

HITS FIVE JAP. FIGHTERS

SYDNEY, August 3. fol " ° ne of * he grimmest combats over New Guinea, a Flying Fortres:? shot down one Japanese others' destroyed three &&££££ bullet hniL rn 200 machine-gun crew ?nffwoH vF w 2 mem hers of the crew suffered head wounds. Gffea a S c tive B-J~a-base. undisclosed operational

out Th to re e^ aS p^et^y ba d weather uTi I an( l ow-lyine cloud » ?hip g into°the Humi'ston. P ' eut Larry wo T r h ea^ S t^ 0t ? n l ? us J ust before hit rnp nf Clouds, and a burst to cut out en S ines . which I had

Our gunners were firing all the to m do with l realisecl the best thing waft'n t iT 4 t ngl ? e out of action, was to take to the clouds.

Second Zero Group f^ r minutes after we were attacked by the first bunch of Zeros a second group joined in, and we counted between 10 and 12 of them. Sergeant Ben Hale, our engineer and turret gunner, tore the cowling off one Zero, and Sergeant K. Gradel and Corporal Bill Clarke, side gunafterwardT° almost immediately

was coming hell for th e left side as I turned, and both lads got him in their cross-

with fu eros wing was ripped off with the concentrated fire, and its engine seemed to explode. It went down with smoke and flames all arounu it.

Our tail gunner, Sergeant Ken Forsyth, was firing all the time, and one Zero, which kept diving at him, come in a bit too close, and that one got a burst, too.

dowrf 1 saw the Zero spiralling

Gunner's Good Shooting "Meanwhile, Corporal Earle Curtis, the bottom gunner, had a go at a 1 snip that climbed up underneath us, and saw flames start up and the P ..c< e turn ov er before going down. "Sergeant Bob Freeman, our bombardier, hit another, which made a frontal attack on us. It turned over in a slow roll just in front of me, and Freeman gave him a burst in the belly. I could see it smoking. "Our second engine was hit half an hour after the fight began, and Curtis, in the bottom turret, was covered with oil. He came up into the middle of the ship and started firing a side gun, and was hit on the temple. "We were now over the middle of New Guinea, flying too low, with all those mountains about, and unable to do much with two engines out. "We managed to reach 8000 feet when the last Zero attacked. "Our ailerons were damaged, and this made climbing difficult. We Lwere in a tough spot, but luckily ttve found a break in the mountains, rand reached the coast. Just Cleared Mountain

"The ship was getting mighty hard to handle, and we just cleared one great mountain peak which loomed up through the clouds. "As we neared our base, I put down the wheels, and reckoned we had a 50-50 chance of the tyres being undamaged. "They were, but the ship raced on until it hit a soft patch, which brought her up with a jolt." Lieutenant E. L. Reid, the co-pilot, reckons Thursday was his lucky day.

He found a cable awaiting him in Lhe officers' mess. It announced that his wife had presented him with a son in Newnaven, Connecticut.