VENTURAS AT FUNAFUTI

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 22, 23 December 1944, Page 6

VENTURAS AT FUNAFUTI

(R.N.Z.A.F. Official News Service) (Delayed Despatch.) (Rec. 1.30 p.m.) FUNAFUTI, Dec. 12 Ventura reconnaissance bombers of the R.N.Z.A.F. are now operating close under the Equator from the tiny atoll of Funafuti in the Ell ice Group. Their duties, similar to those of the I'.A.F.'s famed Coastal Command, arc to safeguard all shipping in the area by patrolling the ■ shipping lanes and to perforin escort duties where required and to carry out operations against cnemv submarines or surface vessels. Although they landed on Funafuti only a few weeks ago the Venturas are now and have been for some time operating smoothly with operations room, signals and" cypher sections all playing their part. Funafuti is an almost perfect atoll consisting of some 30 islets with the R.N.Z.A.F. airstrip on the largest island which is less than seven miles long and some 700 yards across at the widest point and at the highest point only 16 feet above sea level. A roofless shell, which was once a church, and blasted coconut palms hear evidence of Japanese interest in the atoll in the days before the recapture of Tarawa. Being only same eight degrees south of the Equator the heat is considerable and conditions for the ground staff are particularly trying.