FIGHT OVER GERMANY;;1

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 131, 30 November 1939, Page 15

FIGHT OVER GERMANY;;1

N.Z. PILOTS ACCOUNT.

A resident of Makuri recently re- _J ceived a letter from his son, a flying officer an the R A.F. who "was recently j? reported missing, and was found later \<< in a French hospital*. The jCollowingA £ extracts from the letten were r first .s published in the "Pahiatua.' Herald":— / *~ "You see, we went on a raid over Germany at a height of approximately/* 27,000 feet and a distance,of some 30^ miles in enemy territory.' We had just' ,* reached our objective when the Ger-~ man Messerschmitts arrived. There - ,f t seemed to be hundreds of them, actual- rj \ ly there were 18, and only six of us, so v i we didn't have much chance. Ariyhow, we had a good old dog-fight. - -- "Our main object then was to get -^ home intact, so we kept in close forma-" I tion, defending with our rear guns. ■*_» They got five of us and we got four J of them. I was the last .to go. Our ",*. tanks were set alight by incendiary* bullets; my gunner stuck to vhis post*-^ till the last and shot down a' fighter in flames. Of course, it all happened' \, so terribly quickly that I can't remem- 4 „/ ber exactly. ' < '4 "Anyhow I told my crew to get out f/ i and after a terrific struggle, with the sliding nood managed, +o get out. I * pulled the machine on to its back sot,',^ as to be able to fall clear. In the pro- V cess of getting out, however, mjr ■% trousers were burned off and my legs % rather badly burned, also my hands, \JT face, and neck, and that all. > I' "pulled my chute at about 18,000 feet, % and after a rather scaring descent A ' landed with a terrific oump ""half. a - i mile from the lines in French territory *•""* and knocked myself out. J "When I came to there were French." A soldiers all round me with rifles, and. \ they seemed to take me for a German, ' but when I explained who I was they J^ started to kiss me, which was embar- \ rassmg They took me to a clearing j. station and dressed the burns. By that time I was feeling a very sick man. y "Finally I got to a. French hospital where there were six other - survivors. -^ We stayed N there for two days and then -•- were shifted across France 150 miles to '^ an RAF. hospital v Here I stayed for 'ja week Came across to England in >**} a hospital plane and - have been here .* m Sussex' ever since and am doing very | nicely, thank yoa" , /^*