KHAKI “UGLY DUCKLING.”

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 25 June 1925, Page 6

KHAKI “UGLY DUCKLING.”

FROAI REJECT TO AIR HERO

PETER DRXJAIAIOND BACK

Peter Drummond is an A.I.F. “ugly duckling.” When, as a schoolboy, he enlisted, he was told he was not strong enough for the Light Horse. As an act of grace, he was accepter? for the Army Medical Corps. But “ugly ducklings” have their day. When Drummond arrived at Fremantle (says the Sydney Daily Telegraph) it was as Squadron-Commander Drummond, D.S.O. and bar, AI.C., 0.8. E., Anzac, and hero of some of the most thrilling aerial fights ill the East. And lie was loaned to the Boyal Australian Air Force by the parent service for two years. To Australian flying men Drummond is best known as the man who first discovered the evil effect of flying without breakfast. Thereby hangs a tale.

In Alarch, 1918, Drummond was about to have breakfast —his squadron was then quartered near Tul Kerani when a German ’plane was reported over tli© lines. Drummond was one oi the two Dilots detailed, to deal with the intruder. The “Fritz” received a bad time, but Drummond was tackled by six .other German ’planes. The Australian had everything against him. The one gun in his machine could he fired only through its roof, and the Germans kept low. However, Drummond accounted for two German machines. FORCED DOWN. “They forced me down lower and lower,” said Drummond, describing the action. “I was nearly done—T had had no breakfast. It is a bad thing to go up without breakfast. So I dropped towards the enemy aerodrome in a spin, thinking it was better to be captured than killed.” But neither of these fates befell Drummond. He landed on the enemy aerodrome. Alen were rushing towards him, when suddenly he discovered that his engine was picking up. So Drummond determined to- give the Germans “another run for it.” He took oft from the ground. Infantry shot at him. Once a soldier laid hands on the ’plane, but Drummond got clear. Fout times he was forced to land, once in the middle of a Turkish cavalry camp. As he took the air again, his undercarriage caught and held a line of washing. But he reached the Australian lines. Then, as he left his “’bus” he fell unconscious—“an evil effect of no breakfast,” as Drummond afterwards explained it. THIS TIAIE HE WON.

Drummond also figured in another thrilling aerial exploit'. Attacked by three German Albatrosses, Drummond shot down one enemy machine, which crashed, and then pursued the other two. On© of them, severely damaged by Drummond’s fire, broke in the air, and the other flying low to escape, crashed into a hill, and smashed to pieces. Drummond was born at Perth 31 years ago this month. His .splendid work in tli© East wo n him the rank of squadron commander, and a long string of decorations. In 1918 he directed another aerial war in Abyssinia, and then surveyed a long stretch of the Gape to Cairo air route. As a man, a staff officer, and a flyer, Drummond will be very welcome at Point Cook.