N.Z. FLIERS’ AWARDS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20860, 12 August 1942, Page 3

N.Z. FLIERS’ AWARDS

TOTAL REACHES . 253 IMPRESSIVE RECORD : (P.A.) WELLINGTON, this day. In announcing that the total awards to New Zealander airmen serving overseas had reached 253, the Ministe of Defence, the Hon. F. Jones, paid tribute to the splendid record established by these officers and men. . “It is just a little over three months! since I was able to announce that the second hundred awards -had been reached and now the total has been increased to 253. Numbered in this list are many officers and men With double decorations, and, just recently, acting Wing-Commander E. I. Wells, D F’.C. and bar was awarded the Distinguished Service Order to secure a most impressive triple award. ■ . The Minister said that in the earlier days of the war the majority of:the awards to New Zealanders were won by men who ■ had gone from. the Dominion to accept a short-service commission with the Royal Air Force, but since then the list of awards to New Zealanders who had received their initial training in the Dominion had been increasing steadily. -

A survey of the type of men so honoured revealed that they came from all walks of life and showed, that the average young New Zealander.,was of a type fitted for training in, the. specialised art of aerial warfare. Awards had been made to pilots, observers and air gunners, indicating that New Zealanders were playing a magnificent part in all three branches of the flying war.