WING COMMANDERS

Evening Star, Issue 25168, 6 May 1944, Page 6

WING COMMANDERS

FOUR NEW ZEALAND AIRMEN FORMER MEMBERS fIF SPITFIRE SQUADRON (N.Z.P'A. Special Correspondent.) LONDON, May 4. Four former members of the New Zealand Spitfire Squadron are now all wing commanders, and three of them are leading wings in the present operations. Three of them were also formerly commanding officers of the squadron. They are W.-V. C. Compton, D. 5.0.. D.F.C. and bar, Silver Star, of Mission Bay; E. P. Wells, D. 5.0., D.F.C. and bar, of Cambridge; John Checketts, D. 5.0., D.F.C., of Invercargill; and R. W. Baker, D.F.C of Dunedm. "Wing-commander Compton, who. cently returned from a lecture tour in the United States, has Fighting French squadrons under his command. His airfield commander is Wing-commander Alan Deere, D. 5.0., D.F.C. and bar. American D.F.C, Croix-de-Guerre, of Wanganui, who was recently appointed to that position. Wing-commander Baker is on the staff of No. 11 Group Headquarters. Another former New Zealand Spitfire Squadron member who is in England after serving with distinction in Tunis, Malta, and Italy, is Squadronleader E. D. Mackie, Waihi. Squadronleader Mackie, who holds the D.F.C. and bar, is now on rest from operations. He ranks as fifth New Zealand fighter ace in the European theatre, having shot down 16 enemy aircraft. When he left the New Zealand Spitfire Squadron 15 months ago to proceed to Tunis he had shared the destruction of one _ enemy. He quickly gained successes in the Mediterranean theatre, shooting down six and a.half over Tunis, five, over Sicily, and'four over Italy, where he operated over Sangro and Anzio. His sixteenth, an F.W. 199, was shot down over Anzio beachhead. It was one of a formation dive-bombing Allied positions. The leading New Zealand fighter pilots are Wing-commanders Colin Gray, Alan Deere, Flight-lieutenant R. B. Hesselyn, Wing-commander Compton. and then Squadron-leader Mackie.