AN ACE PILOT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20634, 9 December 1941, Page 8

AN ACE PILOT

HASTINGS FLYER COASTAL COMMAND EXPLOITS RECOUNTED (Elec. Tel. CopyrighL-Unitcd Frees Assn.) • Reed. Dec. 9. 9 a.m.) LONDON, Dec. 7. The Air Ministry news service slates that a Royal Air Force squadron dubbed “the demons," the personnel of which are mostly Canadians, with a sprinkling of tough young Americans, are building up a record for bombed ships that is becoming the envy of other Coastal Command squadrons. “But ask any man in the squadron for the name of their best flyer and you get the same answer—a New Zealander. Pilot Officer Ernest William Tacon, D.F.C., formerly of Hastings, Hawke’s Bay,” states the Air Ministry announcement. “A man who has flown many hours with Pilot Officer Tacon says it is grand to see the way he handles a Lockheed Hudson, almost as though it were a fighter. “Pilot Officer Tacon on one occasion volupteered for a job from which he was not expected to return. The navy wanted to bomb Stavanger and asked the Coastal Command for a volunteer spotter plane. Pilot Officer Tacon went. On another occasion when the squadron bombed Hamburg, Pilot Officer Tacon flew to a place under telegraph wires and also under high tension cables across the Elbe. Another time lie attacked a cruiser off an enemy coast, after which he coaxed the plane home with one dead engine.” Pilot Officer Tacon is now instructing young pilots in his squadron.