CEYLON SERVICE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21632, 8 February 1945, Page 8

CEYLON SERVICE

DOMINION AIRMAN SURVIVOR'OF MALAYA A New Zealand officer who has spent three years as a member of the .‘loyal Air Force in Ceylon, and who .saw service in Malaya, from which country he escaped after the Japanese invasion, has returned to the Dominion. He is Squadron-Leader J. rl. Kemnitz, of Dunedin, and is at present in Auckland. In the very early stages of the war, Squadron-Leader Kemnitz, who then had a legal practice in Oamaru, volunteered for special duty in Alalaya. He was at an aerodrome 450 miles north of Singapore at the time of the Japanese attack and, with the others of his force, had to retire until he reached Penang, from where he was evacuated to Ceylon, 'which he reached in February, 1942. Lack of aeroplanes was the most .leart-breaking feature of the Malayan campaign, he said. Had the British forces been adequately supplied with nghters, a different story would have been told, although he would , not go so far as to say the Japanese would not have conquered the territory. As it was, the planes used by the .defenders were so slow that they could not hope to catch a Zero, and they could bomb only at night. He had even' known of Gipsy Moths being fitted out and used as bombers. There were plenty of very fine aerodromes, but no planes to fly from them. Those aerodromes were used to good effect by the Japanese. The work done by the Royal Air Force based in Ceylon was mainly reconnaissance, the protection of shipping and anti-submarine activity, said Squadron-Leader Kemnitz. The force was really a branch of Coastal Command and its planes ranged far yut into the Indian Ocean. It was mainly British, with some Canadian and Dutch airmen. Most of its work was monotonous, but vitally important, as not only Japanese, but also German submarines were active in those seas. He had been operations officer at various stations on the island.

A tremendous amount of supplies and equipment had been accumulated in Ceylon, which became a centre of great naval activity, hut conditions had eased there since the ari'ival of the British Navy in Australia. The successes of the American forces in the Pacific had also made a great difference to the situation in the Indian Ocean, where the Japanese had lost a very great amount of shipping.