TAUGHT TO FIGHT JAPS

Grey River Argus, 6 April 1943, Page 5

TAUGHT TO FIGHT JAPS

SPITFIRE PILOTS. UNDER INSTRUCTORS IN AUSTRALIA. (Rec. 10.20) SYDNEY, April 5. Spitfire pilots, fresh from the European battle zone, are being taught new combat tactics before they go into action against the Japanese. This is necessary because there is a marked difference in the performances of the Japanese and the German fighter planes. There are pyschological peculiarities of the Japanese fighter pilots which must also be taken into consideration. The instructors 'are airmen who have 1 made a special study of the Zqro and of the Japanese fighter pilots technique. They also have had experience against German fighters. While Spitfire planes are superior in speed, fire power and in rate of climb, giving a decided supremacy over the Zero planes, the Japanese fighters still possess the advantage in their manoeuvrability. Thus'" the Spitfire tactics are aimed at giving the Zeros little opportunity to exploit their manoeuvrability. ' “The Japanese pilot is much trickier than the German pilot,” said one instructor. “You can be a huge, success against a Fockewulf or a Messerschmitt and still be dead easy to the tricky little Zero. That is why you must use different tactics against it.” Conspicuous among Australian and English voices at the training centre is a solitary’ American drawl. Flying Officer John Verby, of Portland, Oregon, joined one of the American Eagle squadrons in England before Japan entered the war. He flew Spitfires in fighter sweeps over France. When America entered the war, he chose to remain with the R.A.F., instead of transferring to the United'States Army Air Corps at substantially higher pay. He says: “The R.A.F. was always pretty good to me, so I had to stick to it.”