BATTLE OF MALTA
SPITFIRES GIVE HUN A SHOCK
(0.c.) CHRISTCHURCH, Saturday. The serious nosition in which Malta was placed in May of last year, when the Axis was sending over bombers day and night and the defence in the air was weak, is revealed by a pilot from Christchurch in a letter. The airman is Flying-Officer R. B. Hesselyn, D.F.M. and bar. „ ~ . "It was in May," said FlymgOfficer Hesselyn, "Lhat we had no aircraft left, and had to sit and take all the bombing and gunning without doing anything about it. We were expecting a new batch of reinforcements. Sixty brand-new Spitfires, the latest England had, were coming, and we had everything ready for them. "We reckoned to get every aircraft in the air within 20 minutes of the Spitfires being landed. Next day they arrived, 64 of them, and within ten minutes half of them were in the air—and did the Hun get a shock! Experts say it was even better than the Battle of Britain. From May 9 to May 14 we were battling all day, and we won. During 24 hours we destroyed 112 aircraft, and we kept at it until the Hun gave in. We had won the Battle of Malta."
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Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 8, 11 January 1943, Page 5
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205BATTLE OF MALTA Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 8, 11 January 1943, Page 5
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