AIRMAN'S GALLANTRY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 31, 5 January 1945, Page 4

AIRMAN'S GALLANTRY

TRIBUTES FROM ENGLAND. WELLINGTON, Jan. 5

Tributes to the bravery of a New Zealand airman who died in a blazing plane which he piloted away from a school in the residential area of an English town have been received in letters from England to his mother in Wellington. The airman was FlightLieut. 11.. V. Levy, whose death was announced in the casualty lists recently. Mrs Levy has received from English people more than a dozen letters describing her son's brave act. They are residents of the town over which the deed took place. The writers, besides expressing their sympathy, pay tribute to the airman's courage, which prevented loss of life or serious damage in the town.

Describing the occurrence, an English paper says that shortly before hriith-time a terrific explosion occurred, in midair almost directly over the centre of the town. The sky became filled with falling fragments from the plane, which had only a 'little earlier left a Midland aerodrome. Immediately after the explosion the body of the machine dived headlong to earth, apparently almost directly towards the school buildings.

"It seemed as though the pilot was making strenuous efforts to get clear of the town, though whether this was the case or not can never be ascertained, as the crew were dead before assistance could reach them," says the paper. "The plane, however, landed in a field just beyond the recreation ground. Large pieces of the machine and the engine itself fell much nearer the town." Only slight damage was done to two buildings in the town. "I want to tell you how magnificently the aircraft was piloted to the last, into the field close to my house," wrote one woman to Mrs Levy. "It came over many houses and the school." Flight-Lieut. Levy was the younger son of Mrs and the late Mr L. J. Levy, of Wellington. He had completed 30 operational nights over Germany at the time of his death.