SPIRIT OF AIR FORCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24449, 7 November 1940, Page 8

SPIRIT OF AIR FORCE

DUNEDIN PILOT’S LETTER . • ■ .. •o, ' TTZ'+- •• /"’.>•.»* a;' : BOMBING OF r&ERIi^NY "'VERY SATISFiED; : tE|Ii|NG " . Botir the-- spinU of Air PbVW -«hd' : ih€t v people of England in the face of the German bombing, -raids find expression in a letter which Mr A. A. Paape has received from his son, Flight Lieutenant A. Mr Paape, D.F.G. Since the letter was written Flight Lieutenant - Paape has been promoted to his present rank and awarded the D.F.C. On Tuesday word was received that, he had been “ grounded ” and was resting for three months. “My flying hours are mounting up and up.” he writes under date September --. 16, “ and mv operational trips. . have now taken me to Germany. Norway. Denmark. Belgium. Holland—in fact, everywhere except Italy. I have beenon the Berlin run several times and found our targets reasonably easy to locate and bomb, although the opposition is, of course, a bit warm. On one low level job I came back with 63 holes in my plane and the petrol tanks pretty holey, but we were all A 1 and landed safe and sound, “It gives one a very satisfied feeling to know that a job has been well and truly done, and that Germany is just your load of bombs nearer, to defeat. Their barbaric bombing of London has onlv strengthened the resolution of everyone here. There is no question of defeat anywhere.- The date the war ends is the,date of our victory, and although it may. tie soon or it may not. I am sure we will prevail in the end. This is the happiest station I have ever been on. and the spirit of officers and men alike is splendid, as, I am sure, it is throughout England. Goodness! This sounds like the .Telegraph or The Times,

Promoted |in Rank “As you will see by the address, ! am still in the same spot and carrying on with the good work just as usual. I had a really exciting morning to-day. Twelve letters from home, so I am doing very well! The only trouble is that I now have to sit down and try to answer them all.

“ I’d better give you some glad tidings before anything else. , First, I have been mxade squadron navigation officer, in command link trainer, and promoted, to flying officer. I, believe we are so short of flight lieutenants that I may have yet another stripe in about four months’ time. So you will se'e that things are moving rapidly these days. I haven’t had the pay increase yet. but suppose it will arrive next month. That will help a bit!, ’ ’

“Our days are getting shorter and colder now. Incidentally, Lam writing this about 10.30 p.m., and am off flying at 2 a.rn,, so' I'm not really, too rushed; I had four days off in London recently (much needed), and really things are nothing like as black as they are painted. At least, we are giving them very much more than they are giving us, if that is any consolation. Yesterday we shot down 175 planes, so the fighter lads must lie doing a little work now. Tired on Long Trips “ I’ve had another , long •» trip; -9|rs' 55min. and forced landed ■in a small field without damage. It was so small they had to pull down a fence and shift two haystacks to fly the plane out again, and then I only fust got,"it off. It was still dark when I did the deed with four flares and my landing light, co I was quite pleased with myself. Ido get desperately tired on these long trips now and then, but on the whole they’re not so bad. “ I wish T could agree with you that the war will be over this year/ , .We are all hoping Hitler will try 1 En .it)va'sioh this month. It will be a sbriw day for our Air Force, but shbuld-bffak Germany finally and; soomwr - “It’s an' extraordinary thingiy 4h« writer adds. “ but. papers arrive mpeh more regularly than letters.” v 'y