N.Z. PILOT'S FEATS

Grey River Argus, 19 May 1943, Page 6

N.Z. PILOT'S FEATS

OUTSTANDING RECORD OF RAIDS. (Special to N.Z. Press Assn.) .Tucked inside the tunic of a 22-vear-old New Zealand bomber pilot is a neat tiki. He has worn it faithfully during sixty-one operations, all in a Stirling. He would not Part with it for anything, not even for a triple row of decorations below his wings. The pilot is SquadronLeader Fraser Barron, D.S.C., D.r .C., DF M of Palmerston, Otago. He is’the only New Zealander so far to win those three decorations in this W “My sister Patsy gave me the tiki before I left home. I would never fly without it,” he said. That tiki may or may not have brought him luck, but certainly Barron had his lull

share of both had and good luck. Fortunately the good luck always turned up lust when he needed it—and there were times when he needed every ounce. Quiet, shy and diffident, Barron prefers not to talk about his experiences, but here are a few facts about his two tours:— Sergeant Barron, after training in New Zealand, arrived in England in March, 1941. He was a close fr'end of the late Sergeant Jimmy .Ward, V.C. They were together until ne passed out from an operational training unit. Barron began his first tour in°July, 1941. He first ten raids were nerve-racking ones, the second and third being by daylight on Lille, when, every .aircraft was punctured by flak. The crews could see Spitfires and Messerschmitts engaged in dogfights all round them. then there was a raid on the Ruhr when flak forced the Stirlings so low that "they were below the level of fac tory chimneys, and the gunners engaged in a running fight with German defences for half ai^ ou £; mous Barron twice ..flew „ lhe _3 am „„

Macßoberts Stirling. He went on the big raids on Hamburg, Rostock, Lubeck and Poissy. He flew a Stnlino- for a time, which was afteiwards exhibited outside Saint Paul s Cathedral during the Wings fol Victory” week. Once he raided Bssen three times in 48 hours, and for the good results achieved was recommended for the D.F.M. Barron carried out 39 raids in nis first tour, He was then posted instructor. It was while instructing that he took part in the two famous thousand-bomber raids against Essen and Cologne, and also a minelaying trip, bringing up his total raids to 42. Ho vontinuer instructin e for four months, and later carried out four more raids with pupil crews against Brersjen, Dusiseldorl. (twice) and Hamburg, all o£, whic T h

were “big shows.” Flying Officer J. Paape, of Dunedin (since reported missing) was his pupil. Barron, as do many airmen, preferred operations to instructing. When the “path-finders” (crews who find and light up targets) were formed Barron immediately volunteered, and then, as he now admits ruefully, the fun started. He carried out 15 path-finder raids until ordered to rest. His gunner for these trips was Flying Officer J. Marshall, of Napier, who was later awarded the D.F.C. On every trip something happened. Turin was to be bombed. The weather was the worst possible, and of eight aircraft from Barron's station only two reached the target, Barron’s and another, the latter being shot down over Turin. There was cloud to twenty-five thousand feet, and Barron flew blind across the alps on dead reckoning, coming through the clouds on the estimated time of arrival —and there was Turin bang below. That was due to the good work of a navigator from Durham who won the D.F.M. for his fine work, while Barron was awarded the D.F.C.

A week latei’ Barron went to Munich. Two night fighters attacked his Stirling on the way home, a Messerschmitt 110, which received a burst from the rear-gunner, and then a Junkers 88 suddenly raked the Stirling from end to end, smashing the petrol tank manipulation cocks, resulting in the impossibility of changing over the tanks, and damaging the tailplanes and wings. It seemed that the two port engines would pack up. Preparations were made for baling out, but the rear-gunner I discovered that his parachute was shot to ribbons. Then the fighter again attacked him, and the engineer fixed up the cocks and Barron made his base despite many complications. That engineer was a Scot. It was his 75th and last raid. He was awarded the D.F.C.

On his next trip Barron won the D.S.O. It was the Cologne raid. He was the first on. At eighteen thousand feet a cone of fifty search--1 lights picked up the Stirling. He flew over the town twice trying to evade them and dodge the heavy flak. He was forced down to 10,000 feet but could not dodge the glaring lights. Barron thought to himself, “This is it. It has come at last,” but time must have been thinking otherwise. At any rate on zero hour Barron decided to bomb the searchlights and reached his base.

The very next night he went to Hamburg. The Stirling was shot at all the way out and one engine was actually shot out from the plane over the target. Returning the Stirling fought a way through a storm .and severe icing conditions. With three engines he could not fly above it, and the Stirling was gradually forced lower and lower, weighed down with ice, while the crew rapidly threw out the guns and ammunition to maintain height. They found themselves over Rotterdam at two thousand feet and prepared to bale out, but just at that moment—perhaps it was the tiki at work —the Stirling ran into a rainstrom which melted the ice. Barron got the Stirling to four thousand feet and made his base.

He made his sixty-first raid when he re-visited Cologne. Again he lost an engine over the target, but again i eturned safely. He was then taken off operations and is now instructing. But Barron still wants to return to operations for another tour at least, he says. Perhaps he will get permission. If so he will certainly take his tiki with him on every raid.