MOSQUITO PILOTS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 74, 29 March 1943, Page 3

MOSQUITO PILOTS

New Zealanders Praise Work

Of Latest Planes ADVENTURE AND ROMANCE N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent Rec. 1 p.m. LONDON, March 28. After training together in the same course in New Zealand and operating together in the same Blenheim squadron in Malta and then being instructors on the same station, Flying-Officer O. W. Thompson, D.F.M., of Waipiro Bay, and Pilot-Officer L. T. Weston, of Christchurch, are now together again in the same squadron, flying Mosquitoes.

When Flying-Officer Thompson was married to Sergeant Joyce Williams, W.A.A.F., of London, yesterday, Pilot-Officer Weston was his best man. Also at the wedding was Miss Georgina Thompson, the bridegroom's cousin, who was a bridesmaid when Flying-Officer Thompson's father and mother were married in Auckland in 1915.

Flying-Officer Thompson has carried out 44 raids from Malta, where he spent four months from October to January last. He was awarded the D.F.M. in April, 1942, the citation stating that he successfully attacked, lorries on the Tripoli-Ben-gasi Road, also a railway siding at Soveranto. He also took part in an attack against a 10,000-ton merchant ship, resulting in its complete abandonment, and sank a 1000-ton merchant ship off Tripoli. Flying-Officer Thompson has now carried out six raids in Mosquitoes and Pilot-Officer Weston eight. They have bombed targets at Tours, Rennes, Le Mans, Hengelo, Lingen and Nantes. Pilot-Officer Weston was in two raids against Le Mans, where there is a branch of the Renault works. He was also in a raid against Nantes, when Mosquitoes flew some 1200 miles, bombing locomotive-works. Both these New Zealanders highly praise the Mosquitoes, which are nicknamed "Flying Furniture," as they are constructed largely of wood. They regard it as the most exciting work of the R.A.F., and state that it is the best type of precision bombing, and that the hits achieved are never below 75 per cent.

"Most of the attacks are carried out from a low level," said FlyingOfficer Thompson, "and it is very difficult to pick up the target at a low height when flying at 213 miles an hour. Buildings look very much alike from that height and at that speed."