NEW ZEALANDERS TAKE PART

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 190, 8 May 1943, Page 5

NEW ZEALANDERS TAKE PART

Raid On Dortmund

(By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Special Correspondent.)

LONDON, Muy 6. Pilot Officer Terence McKinley (Wellington) was in one of the first aircraft to bomb Dortmund in the big raid on May 4 when four 20001 b. bombs were dropped every minute. Pilot Officer McKinley said: "We could see Dortmund’s searchlights shooting into the sky when we were still many miles from the town. As we approached we found the target ringed by searchlights and shells bursting all over the sky just above them.

“Only a small part of the force had bombed then, but many fires were already burning in tlie target area. The searchlights were waving about as though the crews were a bit bewildered by so many aircraft. “It was a bumpy flight because our craft was frequently caught in the slipstreams of other planes. My Canadian navigator broke the point of his pencil four times while trying to enter details in the log.” Other New Zealanders participating included Flying Officers J. B. Smith (Wellington) and ' McFarlane (Rotherham), Pilot Officer T. Brown (Tiinuru). Flight Sergeant G. Stevens (Rnta), and Sergeants D. Davidson (Timaru), A. Whitelaw (Otaki), J. Parkes (Hamilton), and G. R. Hawleft (Wellingtonb Deere’s Twentieth Plane.

Wing Commander Alan Deere (Wanganui), D.F.C. and Bar, raised his score of his wing to 995 and his own to 20 when he shot down a Focke Wulf 100 while accompanying a Flying Fortress on the big daylight raid on Antwerp on May 4. Wing Commander Deere sighted the Focke Wulf just as the bombers had bombed, and were leaving the target. He saw it go down in flames, the pilot bailing out.