CHASING THE GERMANS

Grey River Argus, 21 September 1944, Page 7

CHASING THE GERMANS

N.Z. PILOTS’ HECTIC TIME. (Official News Service). LONDON, September 15. New Zealand fighter pilots, flying in the rocket-firing Typhoon wing of li’c R.A.r., end giving close sup.urt to the Second Army, had a most hec-~ tic time of their lives as they kept pace with the break-through from Normandy to Holland. Flying Officer L. Walker of New Plymouth, on leave in London, told how, .in tlie five weeks he had been operating with it across the Channel. His squadron has moved four times from one airfield to another, to keep within range of the enemy. He started at Cagn, but was operating from Belgium by the time he came on leave. Only once did their Typhoons fail to stay in battle—when the Army got too fai’ ahead.

Flying Officer Walker said: “We have been working in very close support of the Army, attacking targets like tanks, barges, trains and gunpasts, right in front of the forward troops, with our rockets and cannon. Our Typhoons are just the thing for the job and the Army seems as pleased as we are at what they can do to concentrations of 'tanks, (rucks and barges.” He added that their busiest days were during the battles in the Falaise gap and at the Seine crossings, when the retreating Germans were forced to crowd thenequipment into constricted spaces. Their Typhoons found ideal targets on the Seine, where the crossings were packed with barges full of troops, and transport. “But the most spectacular single action I have seen was in Holland, the other day. Six of us were briefed to g’o out and destroy a small bridge over a canal across which the Germans were retreating. The first two Typhoons to attack were so accurate that they blew up the bridge by themselves. Our real job was already clone, but we saw a concentration'of barges in a loop in the canal and staved around to beat them up.” Flying Officer Walker said New Zealanders were enjoying life in France. The main drawback was a scarcity of hot baths—“you have to come back to London to get one.” He talked about the particular warmth of the welcome they had been getting in Belgium. When a New Zealander walked down a street in Brussels, people would stop him to read the 1 shoulder flashes and excitedly point I them out to other passers-by. Ho said a dozen or so other New Zealanders were' in the same Typhoon wing.' They included Flight Lieutenants P. Langston (Marton), and J. Jenkins, Flying Officer A. N. Sarnes. D.F.C (Onehunga), Warrant Officer R. Egley and Flight Sergeant Lewis (New Plymouth).