NOTABLE CAREER

Evening Star, Issue 24989, 7 October 1943, Page 4

NOTABLE CAREER

DUNEDIN AIRMAN'S RE&OfID YfHJNGEST STATION CBSIMANBER (N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent.) LONDON, October 4. The New Zealand Beaufighter Squadron is now operating from a station commanded by an . outstanding. New Zealander who is the youngest station commander, in Fighter Command. He is the 30-year-old Wing-commander R. F. Aitken,. A.F.C., of Dunedin, whoso nickname is " Digger." Wing-commander Aitken joined the R.A.F. in 1936. In July, 1937, he was lent to the F.leet Air Arm, and served in the Courageous, Furious, and' Ark Royal. He was then appointed instructor on catapult aircraft to the Royal Navy. He was selected to fly with the second flight of Wellingtons to New Zealand, and began training- a week before the outbreak of the war. When war was declared,. however, he returned to work with the Royal Navy. Subsequently he became personal assistant to the A.O.C. of No. 17 Group in Coastal Command. He took part in the Norwegian campaign, and was one of tie three pilots who ferried Hurricanes from the Ark Royal to the aerodrome near Trond 1 - heim. After every flight the pilots were picked up by Swordfish iplanes and flown back to the Ark Royal, where other Hurricanes were waiting for them. Wing-commander Aitken ferried 12 Hurricanes in this way. While returning to Britain the Ark Royal" was bombed, and when the famous aircraft carrier heeled l , the wash from, a bomb took him overboard, but he was soon picked up. Wing-commander Aitken was responsible for starting the all-important air-sea rescue organisation, and during the Battle of Britain his flight picked up between. 60 and 70 pilots—dead and alive, British and German—from the English Channel. In those early stages he was flying a Walrus. He would bo waiting off the Isle of "Wight for a battle to begin, while about a-quarter of a milo away the Germans would wait in their Heinkel 59's. They established "liaison," and when the aircraft over them was shot down they would take off to go to the rescue, " like a couple of ducks swooping for bread over a pond," as Wing-com-mander Aitken once described it. In September 1940, he joined the No. 3 Squadron as flight-lieutenant, and then commanded the same squadron from December, 1940, to May 1942. During that time he did two operational tours, in one of these flying a long-range Hurricane. INTRUDER DEVELOPMENT. Wing-commander Aitken went on Intruder patrols, attacks against shipping, and also escorted day bombers. During that period he was again re-, sponsible for developmental work, this time with long-range night Intruders, which shot down German bombers while they were landing at aerodromes in France after bombing Britain. One of his ipupils is now Wing-commander D. J. Scott, D. 5.0., D.F.C. and bar. Wing-commander Aitken was the first man to shoot down a German bomber at night with a four-cannon Hurricane. Tt was a Junkers 88. He got it at 21,000 ft during the heavy raid against London on May 10, 1941. He has completed 1,000 hours on Hurricanes, nearly half of which time he was on operations. Then in May, 1942, he wai« appointed staff, officer in charge of night operations during the "Baedeker raids," when the- Luftwaffe selected cathedrals for targets. Aitken was responsible to his A.O.C. for the defence, during all those raids. AWARDED THE A.F.C. ■ In September, 1942, when he was only 29, lie became the youngest station commander in the Fighter Command, a distinction . which he still holds. After commanding one station for a short peripd l , he was appointed by Air Vicemarshal H. W. L. Saunders to an important station which has been used by famous night fighter squadrons. .■' He was awarded the A.F.C. for his developmental and pioneer work, and he has been three times mentioned in.despatches, the first time for air-sea rescue work, the second time for developing a single-engine night fighter, and then for work during the Baedeker raids." Wing-commander Aitken told the New Zealand High Commissioner, Mr W. J. Jordan, who recently visited the New Zealand Squadron> that ho was delighted to have New Zealanders with him. Air Vice-marshal Saunders was I visiting the station at the same time, and he told the High Commissioner that the squadron had shot down two Germans recently, and added: " They are going to do very well. They are foing to pay dividends—provided the [un does his part and comes over here so that they can attack him!"