WELLINGTON PILOT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 87, 14 April 1942, Page 4

WELLINGTON PILOT

NOW SPITFIRE INSTRUCTOR

(0.C.) LONDON, January 22. A New Zealander who is an instructor on Spitfires and is training new arrivals under the Empire Air Training Scheme is Flight Lieutenant R. Bush, D.F.C. (Wellington). He has the distinction of being the only New Zealander who flew in the squadron led by Wing Commander Douglas Bader, the famous legless pilot, who is now a prisoner of war.

Before joining Bader's squadron, Flight Lieutenant Bush fought in France and was stationed at Abbeville before Dunkirk. He returned to England to join an all-Canadian squadron and was then sent to Chateaudun, where he arrived on the day after Flying Officer E. J. ("Cobber") Kain, D.F.C., had been killed. He saw the wrecked aircraft. During the Battle of France, Flight Lieutenant Bush fought over Rheims and Nantes. He saw the Lancastria half an hour after it had been sunk, and flew to Eng-

land on the day before France had capitulated.

Throughout the Battle of Britain, Flight Lieutenant Bush flew in Bader's squadron, which on one occasion shot down 33 Huns in three days. The New Zealander's contribution was one definite and one probable. His total score is 3-J definites, 3 probables, and' 3 damaged.

Another New Zealand instructor atthe same station as Flight Lieutenant Bush is Flight Lieutenant D. Carlson (Waikato).