Man Who Never Knew Fear

Manawatu Times, Volume 68, Issue 57, 9 March 1943, Page 5

Man Who Never Knew Fear

“POP” POLIFKA’S DARING EXPLOITS Received Monday, 9.45 p.m. SYDNEY, Mar. 8. Four Imndred-mile-an-fiour Lockheed Lightnings are being used extensively in tho South-west Pacific area for photographic reconnaissance work. The men flying these planes have had narrow escapes but have managed to out-manoeuvre their Zero attackers and return safely. Their job is to avoid fighting and bring back their films intact. “Theirs is the tradition of high flying and high speed set in the bad old days of Allied air inferiority by Captain (now lieutenant-colonel) Karl Polifka, of California, whose huge moustachios were a feature of the Papuan scene and who was “Pop” to the boys at the age of 33,” writes the Sydney Morning Herald’s New Guinea war correspondent. He too flew a Lockheed Lightning and took on himself the burden of aerial photograph reconnaissance from the overworked Hudsons and Catalinas. He serviced the machine himself and slept under its wings. Not knowing fear Polifka was the first exponent of the art of “Zero teasing.” He flew on his luck all the time and often came home full of holes. Once he had an engine shot out over Rabaul. Despite this major handicap he evaded the Japanese and went on to Lae to take more pictures. Here he met more Zeroes but he escaped them by using clouds and landed at his base out of petrol. As a prelude to the American invasion of Guadalcanal* Polifka stripped a Flying Fortress, filled every aperture he could find with cameras and then photographed the Japanese-held island thoroughly. His pictures made basic maps on which the invasion plans were made.” LieutenantColonel Polifka is now on duty in America but the work of his successors has been used to plan many successful aerial assaults on enemy-held points.