SECRET DOCUMENTS

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 February 1942, Page 2

SECRET DOCUMENTS

AIRMAN ESCAPES WITH THEM

As a Malayan up-country airfield was being evacuated, an R.A.A.F. flying officer escaped with secret documents by plugging a hole in the re-duction-gear case of a strange plane, and stuffing one of its punctured tyres with grass, states an Air Ministry news service bulletin published m “The Straits Budget,” Singapore, on Christmas Day. He had instructions to take the documents from a safe in the orderly office when the order to evacuate the station was received. The documents filled two canvas hold-alls. When he reached safety, this is the story he told of his experiences: “The only transport I could find was an abandoned Ford truck. We loaded it witn personal gear, rations, rifles and ammunition and the operational secret documents.” News came of an approaching air raid. He drove at once to a village, which he reached in convoy with a tractor pulling a petrol waggon. “It was such a difficult drive,” he said, “that I could not see a foot in front of me. Thick jungle on each side of me blacked out the moon. 1 left the village by train and then found some of the documents were missing. So I found transport back to the village. There I met another officer from my original airfield. “We commandeered a large truck to drive to the airfield to salvage what material we could—and to find out the latest position there. We even took ammunition and machine-guns with us for an Indian regiment which was holding the line between the airfield' and the coast. That night I slept in my own room at the airfield, deserted and eerie. It was next morning we found an aeroplane—a Vildebeest. It seemed to be in flying condition except for a large hole in the reduction-gear case and a punctured tyre. I had never flown a-Vildebeest before, but she took off and I got to my destination without mishap.”