SERVICE IN ITALY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 57, 8 March 1944, Page 3

SERVICE IN ITALY

AIRMEN FROM DOMINION (N.Z.E.F. Official News Service) MIDDLE EAST, March G. Several hundred New Zealanders are operating with the Royal Air Force from bases in Italy, Malta and North Africa. Since Dominion airmen first began to arrive in numbers in the Middle East three years ago, the contribution of New Zealanders to the great air offensives which have been mounted in these theatres has grown steadily.

Nearly all the R.N.Z.A.F. personnel in the Mediterranean are engaged on active operations with either bombers or fighters. Some, of course, are resting from tours of operations, while others have been assigned to units necessary to maintain an efficient fighting air force. Ampng these are Transport Command pilots, but the majority are on service in Italy. Flying modern fighters and one of the R.A.F.'s best tried bombers, they are playing their part in keeping the much subdued Luftwaffe under control.

Many New Zealanders have completed'or are completing the second tour of operations, and on forward aerodromes in Italy are pilots who first pitted themselves against the Axis when El Alamein was only one of many names dotted on the map of Egypt's desert wastes. Now from Italian airfields they are continuing their escort duties, sweeps, strafing assignments and bombing raids. One fighter pilot during February shot down two German planes.

In spite of the strain of their work and in spite of the mud and cold, the New Zealanders with the Air Force in Italy are adding further fine chapters to the book which could be written about their country's contribution to the war in the air.