NEW GUINEA PILOT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24912, 11 May 1942, Page 8

NEW GUINEA PILOT

NAME FOR DARING FORMER CARPET SALESMAN (Air Mail) SYDNEY, Apl. 29. The name of Johnny Piper, daring Royal Australian Air Force fighter pilot in New Guinea, is a household word among Australian and American airmen in a land where daring and disregard of personal safety are commonplace. Johnny Piper's exploits have, no doubt, been equalled by many other airmen, but there is something about the way he does things which makes him synonymous with feats requiring extraordinary nerve. For instance, it is now a "Johnny Piper" to go out alone " ground-scraping " since Pipar made a lone sortie against a Japanese base, ignoring flak and machine-gun fire as he swept over the enemy a few feet from the ground. Johnny Piper was doing "Johnny Piper" tricks before the war. He was a carpet salesman in and used to attract gaping crowds in Queen street by his unrehearsed acrobatic stunts from a seven-floor building. He thought nothing of hanging by his feet from the top of the building where he worked to get birds' eggs, said one of his business associates. The sight of Johnny eating his lunch, sitting on an open window, with feet dangling 100 feet above the crowds, was common.

As soon as the war commenced, Johnny Piper joined the R.A.A.F. He has three Zeros to his credit, and a few grim experiences, 100. One of his worst was when his engine failed while he was on a reconnaissance flight over the sea off the Australian coast. The machine went into a spin, and Johnny parachuted into the sea more than five miles from the shore. There was nothing else to do but swim, and he did. Pie was naked and almost exhausted when he dragged himself up on the Then he walked to a farmhouse, draping himself with a piece of hessian on the way. When he arrived at the house the farm people thought he must be a Japanese—he was burnt by the sun and unintelligible mainly 'through a thirst-swollen tongue. They handed him over to the authorities after they had given him every care, and he was taken by ambulance to a hospital. Next morning, when he underwent a nerve test, he was found to be normal. Johnny Piper is the son of a Victorian grazier, Mr W. Piper, who is a descendant of Josiah Wedgwood, of English pottery fame.