GUNNERS QUALIFY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20569, 31 May 1941, Page 4

GUNNERS QUALIFY

KOTEMAORI SERGEANT READY FOR BLIGHTY 'Among a group of air gunners who gi'aduated recently from the Finghal, Ontario, bombing and gunnery school, after completing an arduous course there, was Sergeant Tim Murphy, of Kotemaori, youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. J. R. Murphy. His record at the school was full of merit, according to private information received in Gisborne, and as the one New Zealander to gi-aduate in his particular group, he fittingly carried off the second highest marks awarded. Sergeant Murphy’s experiences in connection with the graduation were not unpleasant, for with some of his immediate pals in the course he was carried s)ff as the guest of a wealthy Canadian, and for a week-end the boys from scattered homes throughout the Empire enjoyed all the luxuries of a millionaire’s mansion. Servants to lay out dress uniforms, luxuries ol' every description, and at the end of the visit chauffeurs to take them to the train and handle their baggage for them, were part of the experiences, contrasting strongly with the rigid routine of the bombing and gunnery school in which they had spent several weeks. As Sergeant Murphy writes to a friend in Gisboime: “It was a long way from Kotemaori!” Belgian Veteran a Candidate

One of the Gisborne gunner’s friends in the school was a Belgian., Sergeant George Croisiau, who joined the Royal Canadian Air Force after having served in the Spanish Civil Wax' and in the defence of Finland agains! the Russian invasion. He was able to escape from Finland, and when he reached Canada he could hardly speak English intelligibly. By the time he had finished his coui-se in the Finghal school, however, he was a fluent speaker in the common language, and had added one or two expressions which to an acute observer might have indicated the home countries of his respective friends.

Others in the class included Americans, one of whom passed with particularly good marks, and a 1 Free State Irishman from Dublin. The New Jersey man and the man fron? Dublin, with a Toronto Canuck, were Sergeant Murphy’s special friends, and the quartet had high hopes of staying together when they crossed the Atlantic and wex - e posted to their service squadrons.