OBSERVATIONS

Northern Advocate, 19 June 1937, Page 8

OBSERVATIONS

By ‘‘THE MAN ON ”

T WAS just about to make observa- • tibns pn the love stories ;bf some famous men, a subject, with which I hope to' deal on another Saturday, When there cdme into my hands a book which so interested pie that I did not put it down till I had read it from cover to cover. ( “Mac’s Memoirs.” The. book, “Mac’s Memoirs.” tells the sfpry of the flying life of the late Squadron-Leader McGregor, prie of New Zealand’s most distinguished sons, a man whose career as ah airman during the Great War made him world-famous. Opening the book at random, I saw a picture of McGregor seated ih the Spartan plane,in which he last visited Whangarei. I was at Kensington when he arrived there one unpleasant afternoon in April, 1932, in the bourse of a round trip between Auckland and Dargaville, making stops at Russell apd Whangarei. While others posed for a photograph, Mac remained in the cockpit, inscrutable as the Sphinx. “Have you had a good trip?” I asked himj., ! “More or less,” was the laconic reply.- ’ Not another word was uttered, and the fampiis airman, who must have felt like, a racehorse on a hackJs' errand/' continued to smoke a cigarette apparently oblivious of the spectators. This was characteristic of McGregor, Who, throughout his all too/ short life, was a quiet, courageous, unassuming gentleman. “Mac’s Memoirs” has been written by Dr. G. H. Cunningham, who was a personal friend of the late SquadronLeader McGregor, and who was one of the few to whom the distinguished airman confided his flying experiences. The author has-had access to the remnant' of the airman’s log-book kept during the Great War, and also to letters which he wrote to members of his fkmily. Like all the real heroes of the War, McGregor hated to talk about his exploits, and unfortunately destroyed records -which would today prove - that truth is indeed stranger than fiction. ’ • ‘ Hie book, which was written as a memorial to this great airman, has been published by Messrs A. H. and A. W. Reed. The profits are to be paid to the McGregor Memorial Fund for support of the wife and children of the airman. i It is not possible in the space at my disposal to do more than make very brief extracts from the book, but I hope that these will serve to make New Zealanders anxious to become better acquainted with the history ans exploits of a distinguished countryman. On the Western Front. When McGregor, who was a pupil of Walsh Bros’ flying school at Auckland, arrived in France, he found that the front patrolled by his squadron lay

over St. Quentin, Cambrai and Arras: According to experienced pilots, this was the oest hunting ground on me Western Front in 19i7, as the aggressive policy of the Britisn airmen led to the finest ot the German fighters, being stationed opposite, at, ana near Douai. ’’ .

‘McGregor was soon in the thick of it, and his log-book shows that ip/ the first month he was one of the squadron who were attacked by German scouts* when they were trying tO destroy an observation balloon. No less than three of the guns- of the British, flight jammed.- This cost one airman his life, as he was. shot down m flames. McGregor averted a similar fate by, keeping his machine in a vertical bank until the hostile machines were driven off by other British machines. ‘•Twisting the Enemy's Tail.” McGregor celebrated the Kihg’s birthday “twisting the tail of the enemy,” for he spent half an hour stunting cvef their lines while they shot at him with every available piece of ordnance. Then he and three others attacked and forced down to their aerodrome eight Germans who were attempting to‘prevent British bombers carrying out a raid on a railhead. Later in the day, McGregor shot down his first enemy aeroplane. The patrol was fighting at 18,000 feet at the tirpe. : ; Three days later, there was evidently some history-making, bUt all that McGregor wrote in his log-book was: “Two hours’ patrol at 16,000 feet. Had a big scrap over Cambrai. Lost Sutcliffe and Grevelink. 1 Fierce .fighting at short range. I got separated, attacked by five machines. Sent down two out of control. Air firing from a few yards’ range, and only got away by out-manoeuvring them. Part of a Hun circus, and the best pilots I have seen. Shot my bus about. Through aileron, one flying wire, centre section strut, main spar, outside strUt and one wing.” Adventures in England. Shortly afterwards, McGregor was seriously hurt when his machine was forced down in shell-torn country qwing to the piston carrying away the cylinder head. This kept him in hospital for‘several months, following which he was engaged as a flying instructor. This period provided not only many stirring incidents, but some that were very amusing. Aerobatics Extraordinary. Spare time was spent improving aerobatics, and some extraordinary things were,done.. On one occasion

McGregor “borrowed” the pet plane of his commanding officer, who he thought was on a visit to London. After cruising for a time around the aerodrome he decided to seek other amusement. Sighting a football match in progress, he dived down and so disconcerted the players that they fled

from the field. He next swooped over a doubie-decKer bus passing along a nearby road, nearly scribing tne cop rails with the landing wheels* and frightened the passengers off the topdeck. Finally, he steeplechased a few feet above the hedges, dived down a narrow gully, zoomed around the aerodrome and landed. , Back In FranceBack in France again, McGregor added to his fame, and the story of the combats in which distinguished British and New Zealand airmen took part make thrilling reading. Here is one incident of many: Referring to his thirteenth victory, which was achieved when he shot down a Fokker biplane near Steenwercke, he wrote to a friend: “A Good Show.” “Yesterday we had quite a -lively scrap with some Fokkers. They were much keener than usual, and put up such a good scrap that several of our machines were much shot about. ■ “We had 11 machines on patrol, A Flight stationed at 12,000 feet and five other machines, of which mine was one, up at 17,500 feet. was to help the lower flight if necessary, and to scrap any Huns that showed up in our vicinity, A dozen Hun-machines were further east, and further off still, too far away to attack, were sev* erhl more triplanes and Fokkers. “When A Flight dived down on some Huns below them, we went down to assist. As we started' down I looked back, and saw the enemy machines from the east beginning to come down on us. When we arrived at the scrap there seemed to be Fokkers everywhere ; . . there must have been thirty of them. “Some neighbouring S.E.’s also joined in,, and we had a great old scrap for 15 minutes. How we avoided collisions Ido not know. 1 * You would get your sights on a HUn for a second and then have to pull out tq avoid being rammed by another S.E. converging on the same target. I fired at several, but could be sure of only one chap. He was, only about 30 yards from me, and by some lucky chance. I was able to get about 40 rounds right into his cockpit. He .went down vertically, completely out of control, and was seen to crash by one of our pilots. Finally, the rgst sheered off and we returned home. As we bagged three, and the other squadron two, with the loss of only one man from the other squadron, it was quite a good show.” Such is one of the extraordinary exploits related in “Mac’s Memoirs.” Then there is the story of the epic flight in the Melbourne Centenary air race. in. which McGregor added to his already great record as an . and finally the pitiful story of how, when the door to reward was opening, a fatal accident at Rongotai ended a remarkable career.