AIR WAR IN PACIFIC

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXII, Issue 13330, 17 December 1943, Page 6

AIR WAR IN PACIFIC

SCORE AGAINST JAPANESE

“SUICIDE PILOTS” DISAPPEAR

San Francisco, Nov. 4

United Nations’ air forces are defeating the Japanese in the New Guinea-New Britain area by more than 12 to one, said Colonel Don P. Hall, leader of the raid on Weyak, in an interview on his return from the South-west Pacific. Colonel Hall and his raiders flew r 825 Mitchell bombers low over the field to catch the Japanese by surprise. Addressing aviation employees, Colonel Hall said: “We are getting planes and equipment now —but we will need a lot of it. “Morale of our forces is 100 per cent, higher than it w'as a year ago, when we had scarcely anything with which to oppose the Japanese. That is why it is a different story- to-day.

“On the Wewak raid, for instance, our cameras .showed we destroyed 206 out of 225 Japanese planes lined up on the air strips. After our first raid the Japanese attempted to build the place up again. They brought in more planes and stores, which was just what we wanted. Then we went back and hit them again a few days later.

“Japanese- fighters we encountered apparently were taught only to attack. They don’t know what to do when they have to go on the. defensive, and they become confused. We don’t hear of any Japanese ‘suicide pilots’ any more,” Colonel Hall said. “The aggressive boys have just about disappeared. They are getting more wary of our boys all the time, and more than once our pilots have turned a pursuing Japanese pilot back by simply flicking their tail cone red lights to make the Japanese pilot think it was machine-gun fire.” Japanese Navy pilots appear to be better than their Army pilots, he added.