AWARDS OF D.F.C.

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 43, 19 August 1943, Page 6

AWARDS OF D.F.C.

WELLINGTON AIRMEN

Advice has been received that Pilot Officer Paul W. W. Brunton, of Wellington, has been* awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. The only son of Mr. and Mrs. L. A. Brunton, of 115 Upland Road, Kelburn, he entered the service of the Bank, of New South Wales in Dunedin in 1937, having been educated at Otago Boys' High School and Otago University. He joined the Air Force in 1941, obtained his "wings" the same year, and left New Zealand for Great Britain in January, 1942. He pilots a Lancaster bomber.' The citation reads: "Pilot Officer Brunton has flown on a large number of operational sorties and is now engaged on instruc-

tional duties. His enthusiasm remains unabated, although on several occasions his aircraft has been riddled by anti-aircraft fire and has twice had encounters with enemy aircraft. Pilot Officer Brunton possesses high courage, skill, and initiative, and invariably displays fine fighting spirit."

PILOT OFFICER MCKINLEY

The award of the Distinguished Flying Cross to Pilot Officer Terence McKinley, R.N.Z.A.F., of Wellington, was. officially announced today. Details of the decoration are giVen by the R.N.Z.A.F. Official News Service, which states that Pilot Officer McKinley has completed a large number of sorties, first with Britain's Coastal Command arid latterly with the Bomber Command.

The citation accompanying the award tells of a 20-minute fight with five Junkers-88's, of another time when his aircraft was lit up by searchlights and hit while over the target area, and of a third occasion when he was halfway across the North Sea and one engine gave out, but he carried on and successfully completed a minelaying mission.

"Pilot Officer McKinley is an outstanding captain," the citation continues, "and his fine fighting spirit, courage, and leadership have gained him the entire confidence of his crew. His targets have included Berlin, Hamburg, and' Essen."

Pilot Officer McKinley is a son of Mr. and Mrs. D. McKinley, 135 Brougham Street, Wellington. He was born at Nelson in. 1922, and received his secondary schooling at Wellington Technical College, where he was captain of the Rugby fifteen. At the time of entering the R.N.Z.A.F. in July, 1940, he was employed as a clerical cadet by the Government Housing Construction Department in Wellington. He was trained as a pilot in New Zealand and, Canada in 1941.

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