EX-FARMER PILOTS
N.Z.-SPITFIRE SQUADRON
LONDON, Jan. 23. The Fighter Command's leading. New Zealand Spitfire squadron has nine exfarmer pilots. The leader is Squadron Leader R. J. C. Grant, who has destroyed seven enemy. planes, and has probably destroyed and damaged others. The squadron includes only one nonNew Zealander, an Australian.' One ex-farmer, a sergeant, from Waikaka Valley, L. S. McQueen White, claims the world's record for sheep shearing, shaving sheared 432 sheep in eight and a half hours. Not all the nine farmers came from the land to join the R.A.F. Some had already forsaken agriculture. One became ah electrical engineer at a gold mine, and another was a gold miner, a farmer, a teacher, and a commercial artist, and was preparing for his bachelor of arts degree when the war interrupted his studies. After joining the R.A.F. he served in Rhodesia, where he won the Rhodesian Midlands lightweight boxing title. Two sheep farmers are from Hawke's Bay, and others are from the Canterbury Planes, The squadron has destroyed 32 planes. The average age of the squadron's personnel is 24. .
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19430125.2.49
Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 20, 25 January 1943, Page 4
Word Count
180EX-FARMER PILOTS Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 20, 25 January 1943, Page 4
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