N.Z. PILOTS AT ALGIERS

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23804, 25 November 1942, Page 3

N.Z. PILOTS AT ALGIERS

SERVICE ON AIRCRAFT CARRIER ALGIERS, Nov. 22. Four New Zealanders, members of the Fleet Air Ann, described their patt in the seizure of Algiers as “a routine exercise in which we were not called on to fire a shot,” but they had their share of excitement later when their aircraft-carrier was dive-bombed. They are Sub-Lieuten-ants Lloyd Johnson (Christchurch), Jack Blacker (Auckland), Donald Cameron and J. Hale (Wellington). Sub-Lieutenant Hale, who is 22 years of age, is the quartet’s “father.” Their carrier was , briefed to give fighter cover for the landings. SubLieutenant Johnson said: “For several days we took off and patrolled the coastline and aerodromes. We did not sight a single airborne aircraft. Qnly four of our chaps got ashore because it was too dark for them to land on the flight deck. There was more than one alert, but apart from gunfire from the escorting destroyers, nothing happened until the third night off Algiers. “Then, just as dusk was giving way to night, 15 Junkers 88's were sighted. We prepared for high-level bombing, but they peeled off and came down hell for leather from astern. The waves thrown up by near misses flooded the flight deck, but the old man was throwing the carrier about like a destroyer, and when the Nazis roared off and the clouds of spray and smoke dispersed, we were little the worse for wear.” The four New Zealanders were able to make up for their lack of action over Africa by manning a Vickers gun and loosing off at dive-bombers, al- ! though they admitted that their efforts , were more energetic than accurate, Sub-Lieutenant Johnson, with a scar ; on his nose, when questioned, admit- : ted that it was the result of a slight I mishap. During landing practice his fighter “jumped a bit,” finished up on the edge of the flight deck, and then slowly toppled into the sea, Sub-Lieutenant Blacker remarked: “You never saw a chap scramble out of an aeroplane faster than he did. We fished him out and the doctor ' welcomed him with open arms. That’s the result—the neatest patched nost you will find anywhere.”