Eyes Of The Forces In Pacific War

Northern Advocate, 24 September 1943, Page 5

Eyes Of The Forces In Pacific War

(Official 'Correspondent) ,(j i; A DAU'ANAR

Day after day. in fair weather or foul, Hudson aircraft of the New Zealand bomber-reconnaissance squadron now at Guadalcanal’, lake off and between them enter thousands of square miles of ocean on routine patrols. Manned by some of the most experienced air-crews in the R.N.Z.A.F.. the Hudsons are performing a task that is unspectacular, boring and tedious in the extreme. At the same time it is of vital importance in keeping the sea and airlines open to Allied traffic and free from enemy raiders. It is still dark when the Hudson faces down the •runway. The aircraft takes off eastward, where first light is beginning to show. making the steel matting on the runway a faintly shining path in the surrounding gloom. She lifts easily, turns oyer sleeping camps, completes her circuit and is away.

Slim Shapes Half Seen

The slim shapes that, are half-seen as they speed northward are Corsairs or Warhawks, off to keep an early appointment with the Mikado’s Zeros. Early morning shadows swallow up the fighters, and the Hudson, alone in the sky, heads cut to sea. Flying always below cloud., the bomber seems to be trying to race the sun, but the light floods the sky from dead astern, and the incredible blue of the sea shows clearlv when cabin lights have been turned cff. Trimming his ship to fly “hands off,” the captain ‘lets George do it.’ He engages the automatic pilot, and at a steady cruising speed the monoplane begins her six or mere hours of routine

Looking Into Space In his microscopic compartment, the wireless operator is gazing more or less biariKiy into space. A tiny lamp over his instruments shows his collection of dials and switches, and incidentally, illuminates the photograph of a pretty gin. To tile rest of the crew, the piping and squeaking that comes through the earphones are a meaningless jumble oi noises, but to the operator they are the shrill voices of radios, and every so often he picks out of the air a message for the aircraft and jots it down. Ciders to test guns are given by tnc captain, and the Hudson's armament speaks up. Streams oi tracer pour from guns mounted to cover the whole aircralt, and little splasi.es in the sea show where bullets have fallen. Usually the trip is urteventful. So many hours cut. a fresh course given by the navigator, and-so many hours home. And only the sea and sky, clouds chasing each other across the empty air, and the unvarying note of the twin motors. Ever so slowly, the minute-hand on the clock mounted in the pilot’s instrument panel creeps round, and, just as slowly, the fuel gauges drop as petrol is burned. There is no sense of movement. The aircraft seems suspended between blue sky and blue sea. Breaking of Monotony Only occasionally is the monotony broken. Sometimes, a .Japanese, aircraft ;s sighted, on a similar mission, looking for shipping. Usually it makes’ off, • thougn once a float-plane tried, conclusions with a Hudson, and was neatly 'Shot down by the front guns. Even more rarely a submarine is seen. On those occasions the patrolling Hudson has swept down upon an enemy ‘pig-boat,’ bomb-dpors have swung open, and depth-charge's hurtled down to take revenge for Allied ships sunk. Wreckage may be seen floating on the water, pitiful scraps of some - unknown ship, and once —at happened only recently—the watchful eyes of the 'turretgunner saw a tiny life-raft, and an American pilot was saved to fly again. But usually it is dull, deadly dull and uneventful. On the homeward leg, further to the north, the crew can see the tall mountains of New Georgia and Kolombangara and the black shape of Murray Island, famed- in South Seas stones for its ferocious natives. On the north-western tip of the island, the crew look down upon the wreckage of Japanese ships. Grim relics of the great air and sea battle of last December, they dot the reef. Held fast by coral teeth, they lie where they were driven ashore, being slowly'battered to pieces by the waves. Hundreds of Japanese landing barges are scattered along the shore, and even as the Hudson comes in to land, its crew can see the devastated area swept by gunfire earlier this year. an<3 only now being covered again by fresh green growth.

Polish Navy.—The Polish naval attache in London has stated that the Polish navy is now larger than at the beginning of the war. It consists of the cruiser Dragon, seven destroyers, three submarines and some motor-gunboats. The nucleus of the navv was formed bv five ships which arrived in Britain in 1939 and two training ships which were in the Atlantic. ;