FLYERS DECORATED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20629, 3 December 1941, Page 7

FLYERS DECORATED

GALLANTRY IN ACTION EMPIRE MEN IN LIST (British Official Wireless.) Reed. 2.10 p.m. RUGBY, Dec. 1. Though the wing of his aircraft at mast height was hit several times by shelling from two heavily-armed merchant vessels and escorting destroyers which he attacked in the lonian Sea. Sergeant Gillman, Royal Air Force, who was formerly a London clerk, succeeded in setting one merchantman ablaze with two direct hits. The D7F.C. which Sergeant Gillman received for the exploit is among the awards in the latest Royal Air Force list. Three officers already holding the D.F.C. receive the D.S.O. One, Acting Wing-Commander J. Rankin, who already holds a bar to the D.F.C., has destroyed 18 enemy aircraft. A Canadian, Australian and South African each receive the D.F.C. The second decoration for gallantry in the air during the Libyan battle goes to Sergeant Kenneth George Duepre, of the South African Air Force. He has been granted an immediate award of the D.F.M. On November 20 the aircraft in which he was top gunner was attacked by enemy fighters near Tobruk. The bottom gunner was hit by bullets and was slipping through the lower hatch when Sergeant Duepre went down and dragged him back to safety while the attack was still in progress. Returning to his guns after caring for the wounded man. Sergeant Duepre kept up an effective fire until the mechanism jammed.