AIR OUTPOSTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24177, 20 January 1942, Page 7

AIR OUTPOSTS

THE DUTCH IN BORNEO FAST FIGHTERS NEEDED SYDNEY. Jan. 16_ Describing Dutch air outposts in Borneo, Mr. Geoffrey Tebbutt, special correspondent of the Sydney Sun, in a cablegram from Bandoeng, says: — For what a layman's opinion is worth, 1 would say, after visiting some outposts in Borneo, that there, as well as in Java, the Dutch have done wonders with the means at their disposal. It is useless to pretend that these means are adequate, especially in view of the unfavourable development in the general Asiatic war situation. Their army needs something faster and better armed than existing Glen Martin bombers and Brewster Buffalo fighters to cope with the speed and armament of the Japanese zero fighters, which seem closely to resemble the. Messerschmitt 109's, and which, most accounts agree, are capably flown. The East Indies have Spitfire funds for Britain, but no Spitfire for themselves, and some bombing operations in Borneo around Meri and Kuching, have been undertaken with little and sometimes no fighter support, yet nobody who has seen, the Dutch efficiency and spirit in the green hell of the Borneo jungle can doubt that they mean business in the defence of the Indies. One aerodrome which I visited is so swallowed up in a surrounding damp, clinging mass of vegetation that even the Dutch pilots who have been there several times still have difficulty in locating it, and if the Japanese succeed they are even cleverer than they are reputed to be. I went there from Bandoeng in a Lockheed Lodestar troop-carrier, taking spare parts for bombers, and returned in another carrying three bullet-punc-,tured petrol tanks for repair. It is not to be expected that this hidden base is equipped with the completeness of an aerodrome on the beaten track, yet, without the foresight of planning it and hacking it from the jungle, and the stubborn competence which makes it workable, the Japanese would have escaped with even less punishment than tney have thus far received. Life there is strenuous and conditions are primitive. As the Dyak natives have not been educated to aeroplanes, all skilled labour must be brought from Java.

Europeans' stationed there normally expect a transfer to Java after a few months, but the present detachment must be reconciled to long service in the jungle. Some have already left their bones in this horrible place and some others itch for more action, however risky, to break the maddening chains of environment. They have already sunk six Japanese ships, including one large transport, and shot down two Japanese aircraft in six separate operations off the north coast of Borneo.