MILITARY CROSS FOR AIRMAN

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23742, 14 September 1942, Page 4

MILITARY CROSS FOR AIRMAN

1 DARING ESCAPE FROM HONG KONG 1200-MILE TREK TO CHUNGKING (P.S.S.) NEW PLYMOUTH, Sept. 13. The Military Cross, an Army decoration, has been awarded to a New. Zealand airman serving with the Royal Air Force in the Far East for distinguished service. He is Pilot Officer Edmund Douglas Crossley, whose wife, Mrs O. Crossley, lives at Hawera. Pilot Officer Crossley, who is at present in India, has had an adventurous time since was commissioned in the Air Force after completing his training in New Zealand in the middle of last year. He is one of two Air Force officers who made a daring escape from a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Hong Kong, and who reached India after an arduous trek across China to Chungking. First stationed in Malaya, Pilot Officer Crossley volunteered for service at Hong Kong, and arrived there only a short time before Japan entered the war. When the aerodrome was evacuated, the airmen were told to go to the island of Hong Kong, where they placed themselves under the orders of the Navy. They fought as machine-gunners until the island surrendered -and they were taken prisoner. Conditions were unbearable, and, after a dash from the camp, in which they were spotted by the Japanese, they had to swim to -the mainland under a hail of bullets* Then their adventurous trek through 1200 miles of country to Chungking began. After two days they were attacked by armed robbers, whbm they ultimately drove off. Two days later they ran into a party of about 60 bandits, who robbed them of their money, watches and valuables. Later, a party of Chinese guerrillas helped them by acting as guides through the dangerous hills, passing them from one group of guerrillas to another. The journey to Chungking took more than two months, during which they endured many hardships and sickness. Pilot Officer Crossley is 25. He was born and educated in Wellington.