TORPEDO BOMBERS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 5 February 1944, Page 5

TORPEDO BOMBERS

FIRST R.N.Z.A.F. UNITS COMPLETION OF TRAINING LATEST TYPES OF AIRCRAFT The R.N.Z.A.F. has made history by completing, seven months alter formation, the training of the first torpedo-bomber units. They are fitted out with the best operational type of aircraft for the particular job, the Grumman-Avenger. A New Zealander back after torpedo-bomb-ing experience in the R.A.F., Squadron Leader R. G. Hartshorn, Auckland, has trained them. He told a representative of “The Dominion” at a forward New Zealand operational base, that the men he had trained were good flyers. Admitting, he said, a bias towards his own outfit, they compared favourably with any squadron of the same type that he had seen in England. They were all very keen on their job and eager to have a go. Thirty per cent of th e pilots already trained are new; the rest a>'e old hands. Besides the accuracy demanded from the pilot-torpedo aimer, which comes only with the most intensive practice, the essential qualification is steady cold-blooded ability to fly straight into the target against the hardest counter-measures, let go the “fish” and take evasive action. Each torpedo-bomber gets only one chance in an action because it carries only one torpedo. That is why the crew has to be more than just good, if it is going to do the job. The tor-pedo-bomber has to sink an enemy ship in contrast with the dive-bomber whose task is more to cripple hostile shipping. Their particular form of bombing is the glide; the long low 30 degree run toward the target. The divebombers in contrast go down at 80 degrees; for all practical purposes near enough to vertical. In training, torpedoes, minus the explosive charges in the head, are set to travel under water and below the target. Later they can be rescued and used again.

Squadron Leader Hartshorn says that the aircraft with which the squadron is equipped will be the latest (except for the newest fighters) in the Pacific areas. He had flown Beauforts and Hampdens and the aircraft provided for the torpedobomber units of the R.N.Z.A.F. compared most favourably. They were solid and had a good turn of speed, were reliable and manoeuvrable. And they could take a lot of punishment. They were not converted types but specially designed for the job. The torpedo-bomber carries a crew of three—pilot-bomb aimer, navigator, wireless operator-air gunner.