HEROIC AIRMEN

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20629, 9 August 1941, Page 6

HEROIC AIRMEN

DAMAGE DURING RAID FORCED DESCENT AT SEA LIFEBELT GIVEN AWAY (Elee. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) LONDON. July 27. The heroism of a Tasmanian, Ser-geant-Pilot. Norman McQuitty, and the self-sacrifice of an English observer—sole survivor of a crew of five squadron officers —were described to me during >a visit to a bomber squadron, writes the correspondent ol the Sydney Morning Herald. McQuitty and the other three members of the crew ere known to have been drowned while returning from a raid on Germany. The observer and Sergeant-Pilot Bernard Jones, of Melbourne, with whom I also talked, warmly praised McQuitty's operational work during raids on enemy territory. McQuitty's Whitely bomber was hit severely while he was flying to his objective. On one engine he flew on amid a hail of shells, the shrapnel from which made many holes in the fuselage and wings of the bomber. McQuitty, however, piloted the aircraft as if nothing hud happened, continuously losing height until he was over his target and released his bombs. He then began the perilous return flight of more than 200 miles across the sea. It appeared that he would be able to land his machine, but suddenly the overworked engine seized and the aircraft planed down to the water. It was then nine miles from the coast, which, • normally, the crew would have had an excellent chance of reaching in their rubber dinghy. When the dinghy was launched, however, it was impossible to inflate it because it had been punctured by shrapnel. The crew' then had to rely on their “Mae Wests” (lifebelts). When the rear gunner—a poor swimmer' —tried to inflate his he found that it had been punctured and could not be inflated. The observer—a strapping fellow and a strong swimmer—thereupon handed his lifebelt to the gunner. The observer reached the shore hours afterwards, exhausted, after having avoided the menace of coastal defence devices.

“I last saw McQuitty ” said the observer, “calmly standing on the tep of the fuselage giving advice and instructions in an effort to save his companions'. He was( ‘wizard.’” (“Wizard” is an 11.A.F. word indicating super-excellence.)