N.Z. TYPHOON PILOTS

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24365, 18 September 1944, Page 3

N.Z. TYPHOON PILOTS

ROCKET-FIRING WING ACROSS CHANNEL (Official News Service.) LONDON, Sept. 15. New Zealand lighter pilots, flying in the rocket-firing Typhoon wing of the Royal Air Force, and giving close support to the 2nd Army, had the most hectic time of their lives as they kept pace with the break-through from Normandy to Holland. Flying .Officer L. Walker, of New Plymouth, on leave in London, told how in five weeks he had been operating with it across the Channel. His squadron has. moved four times from one airfield to another to keep -within range of the enemy. He started at, Caen, but was operating from Belgium by the time he came on leave. Only once did their Typhoons fail to stay in battle when the Army got too far ahead. Flying Officer Walker said; “We have been working in. very close support of the Army, attacking targets like tanks, barges, trains, and gunposts right in front of the forward troops with our rockets and cannon. Our Typhoons are just the thing for the job, and the Army seems as pleased as we are at what, they can do to concentrations of tanks, trucks, and barges.” He added that their busiest days were during the battles in'the Falaise gap and at the Seine crossings, when the retreating Germans were forced to crowd their equipment into constricted spaces. Their Typhoons found ideal targets on 'the Seine, where the crossings were packed with barges full of troops and transport. “But the most spectacular single action I have seen was in Holland the other day. Six of us were briefed to go out and destroy a small bridge over a canal across which the Germans were retreating. The first two Typhoons to attack were so accurate that they blew up the bridge by themselves. Our real job was already done, but we saw a concentration of barges in - a loop in the canal and stayed round to beat them up.” Flying Officer Walker said the New Zealanders were enjoying the life in France. The main drawback was the scarcity of hot baths—“ You have to come back to' London to get one,” he said. He talked about the particular warmth of the welcome they had been getting in Belgium. When a New Zealander walked down a street in Brussels people would stop him to read his shoulder flashes and excitedly ooint them out to other passers-by. He said a dozen or so other New Zealanders were in the same Typhoon wing. Included were Flight Lieutenants P. Langston, of Marton, and J. Jenkins. Flying Officer A. N. Sames, D.F.C., of Onehunga, Warrant Officer R. Egley. and Flight Sergeant Lewis, of New Plymouth.