ADVENTUROUS CAREER

Evening Star, Issue 25300, 7 October 1944, Page 9

ADVENTUROUS CAREER

SQUADRON-LEADER DENNIS SHARP, D.F.G. Service in many theatres of war, including Singapore and a period with General Wmgate's forces in Burma, has been the experience of Squadron - leader Dennis John Thomas Sharp, an old boy of. the Otago High School. He went to Great Britain in 1938 to gain a commission in the Royal Air Force, and went on active service when war broke' out the following year. With his squadron he was at Gibraltar and Malta, and when Japan entered the war he flew into

Singapore After the fall of Singapore he came out with the last four planes and crashed on an island, from where he made his way to the Dutch East Indies to fight his way ivith„the ground forces through Borneo, Java, and Sumatra. Eventually he was sent to Ceylon for further service with the R.A.F., and while engaged in operations there was shot down. Squadron-leader Sharp next saw service in India, where he volunteered to join General Winfate's forces which operated behind the apanese lines in Burma. He was the only New Zealander engaged in those operations at the time. After 15 months' training and operations in that theatre he returned to the U.A.F. Squadron-leader Sharp has now been transferred to New Zealand, and is expected to arrive home next month. He was awarded the Distinguished Flving Cross and mentioned in despatches. His father, Mr J. B. Sharp, who is the manager of the Masonic Hotel, Nelson, formerly resided at Green Island and St. Clair.

Squadron-leader Sharp was the coauthor, with Lieutenant Arthur Dnnoghue, of a book. ' Last Plight from Singapore.'