SHOOTING DOWN ZEROS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 78, 26 June 1943, Page 5

SHOOTING DOWN ZEROS

NELSONIAN MAKES SURE OF ONE Auckland, June 25. Further details of their experiences in shooting down Japanese Zeros have been given by New Zealand airmen who have returned this week from operations in the South Pacific. Squadron Leader Herrick said:— “Bullets were screaming all round during the dogfight and planes were all over the sky.” His first kill was some time ago, when he downed a Japanese float biplane, type 95, a long reconnaissance craft which he stalked from the rear and sent down in flames with a two-second burst from his guns. His second kill was in a dogfight on the tail of a Zero which he chased for 50 miles, though an account which he read said 120. Comparing the Japanese with the Germans, he said the Japanese were much easier to shoot down. Their planes were so lightly armoured that one did not have to give them nearly as much. They were not as well organised. They got mighty close though, and it was all shotgun shooting. Flying Officer Max Davis (Wellington) was Herrick’s No. 2, and they each collected cannon shots in the same bout during a dogfight. Davis was wounded in the hip and left arm, yet carried on to make a forced landing with his arm out of action and pierced with shrapnel. An aileron was shot in half, the retraction gear was smashed, and he had to bring the plane down without the use of the undercarriage. Flight Lieutenant Douglas Grieg, Auckland, and Flight Lieutenant Sholto Duncan, Nelson, each had a Zero to their credit, though earlier in the war, against their personal wishes, they had to act as instructors for a long time. Some of their earlier pupils are now wing commanders. “This sport,” said Grieg, “is the best in the world. It was our prayer to get into the dust-up with the Japanese before we returned from this tour, and we loved it.” ZERO DISINTEGRATES Duncan, who had as No. 2 Sergeant Pilot Murdoch, got astern of a Zero and saw his tracers going in. He closed to give another burst and the whole tail disintegrated, the Zero bursting into flames just before the hit The fourth to collect in the dogfight was Sergeant Pilot Bob Martin, Te Puke, who was No. 2 to Flying Officer Court The last-named was on the tail of a Japanese, but had to abandon the chase, and Martin got the Zero with a deflection shot, just as he pulled up in a turn. He saw tracers go through the Japanese cockpit, which probably got the wing tank, for the Zero exploded and a great sheet of flame covered the plane. He followed it down to 10,000 ft and the others saw it break up. Fighting generally was at 20,000 ft, and as a result of frozen oil in the guns because of inexperience of local conditions, some jammed at crucial moments. Otherwise, more Zeros would have been downed. “It won’t happen again,” the New Zealanders promise. Flight Lieutenant Sholto Duncan arrived home in Nelson yesterday on fur lough.