A NAME LIVES.

Evening Star, Issue 25928, 21 October 1946, Page 6

A NAME LIVES.

The decision to apply the title “ No. 75 Squadron” to the first of the R.N.Z.A.F. squadrons to be equipped with Mosquito aircraft in' the near future is one for which airmen generally and the publio as'a whole should have nothing but approval. No squadron of tiie R.N.Z.A.F. had quite the career of No. 75, for it was the first of the New Zealand squadrons to go into actioii, and it continued as a powerful factor in the bombing offensive until the German capitulation. It was formed right at the outbreak of the war, its nucleus being six of thirty Wellington bombers waiting, with New Zealand crews, for the order to fly to the Dominion, where they were to be taken over by the Government. In a characteristic gesture the New Zealand Government, in the hour of emergency, presented the planes to the British Government: the New Zealand crews remained with the machines, and so 1 No. 75 Squadron was born. In time the handful of Wellingtons became larger and the numbers were added to by Lancasters and Stirlings, which in the end predominated. Largely because of circumstances, the squadron at first was employed in sporadic hit-and-run attacks, but it played no small part in supporting the British and. French forces in Europe after the invasion of the Lowlands. In the first really I big British air attack on Germany—when Lubeck was devastated in Apri1,1942 the squadron acquitted itself with distinction. It was an integral part of the 1,130 bombers of all types and sizes that were grouped together to carry out the history-making raid on Cologne at the end of May, 1942. From then onward the work of the squadron became more and more important, adding steadily to its laurels, until during the decisive Battle of Falaise, in Normandy, the squadron gained, a reputation for flying the most sorties and for dropping the greatest weight of bombs in its group. In all theatres of war where the R.N.Z.A.F. took a part, the courage and resourcefulness of its personnel were acknowledged and praised by all. Tributes were many and meant. The standard set so early in the piece by Flying-officer Edgar Kain, who, as a fighter pilot, earned world renown as the first air ace of World War 11,, was maintained and even surpassed by his successors in bombers and fighters. No. 75 Squadron’s roll of honour boasted as many decorations as a holly bush berries, far too many for individual mention here, although names like those of Sergeant J. A. Ward, who was awarded the V.C. after crawling out on the wing of a bomber, 12,000 ft above the North Sea, to extinguish fire, stand out. It had, naturally but regretfully, been expected that the name of the squadron would pass with the ending of the war, and it is good to know that the meaningless title “No. 2 Squadrpn,” which it had been intended to apply to the Mosquito squadron, will be changed to something more vital and virile, and more pregnant with meaning not only here, but abroad. .