CRASH LANDINGS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 237, 7 October 1942, Page 2

CRASH LANDINGS

N.Z. AIRMAN'S EXPERIENCES

N.Z.E.F. Official War Correspondent.

WESTERN DESERT, Oct. 3. Offif h e r r ee T tin ur S & al > es in Which PilotrfLi W - Evison, of Hastings, has been a navigator have been la P d after operations, but he is still at work, and hones soon to take a pilot's course He Piwn/ 1 Air Rescue Flight Pilot-Officer Evison left New Zeanavisitm- E |n Sl T nd 35 a ful »y-trained navigatoi yln January, 1940. With rnn '°iS ew .Zealand Bomber SquadSts a u arned t out 32 operational nights, all except one over Germany that one being to Italy. ' r.i^fi U^ ning f r° m one operation, his plane encountered a severe snowstorm and landed some distance from the aerodrome. Lt

a fierce barrage over Berlin, a plane in which Pilot-Officer Evison was navigator twisted and turned for half an hour, making its escape with the under-carriage shot ™, ay -. Holed in three placis. one hole in the fuselage being 3ft 6in wide,, and without wireless, the i^Engfand^ 6 and sanded safely

Pilot-Officer Evison flew out from England toward the end of April last year. After being in Irak for a time, he came to the desert. When bombing over Bengasi his plane was damaged by anti-aircraft fire and in landing at a desert aerodrome crashed into another machine fullv loaded with bombs and petrol. He was rescued from the blazing plane while at intervals bombs were bursting, but he suffered so severely from ourns and cuts that he was off dutv for seven months.