SPITFIRE SQUADRON

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25735, 5 January 1945, Page 3

SPITFIRE SQUADRON

NEW ZEALANDERS’ RECORD NO LOSSES DURING YEAR (N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent) (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, Jan. 4. Not a single aircraft lost to the enemy during the year is the record of the New Zealand Spitfire Squadron now operating in the Netherlands. Squadron J. G. Pattison, of Waipawa, said: “Our squadron’s record of 12 months without loss is all the more remarkable when one considers the nature and extent of the year’s operations. Since D-Day alone we have destroyed nine enemy aircraft, besides successfully attacking hundreds of motor vehicles, blowing up ammunition dumps, smashing railway junctions, and strafing gunposts, locomotives, barges, and every other conceivable target.” <

Before D-Day there were crosschannel sweeps and bombers’ escort missions, and since '.he invasion began the squadron has been in the thick of things at Falaise, Caen, Breskens, and on up to the present bomb line. Their principal work now is bombing and strafing, often at zero feet, in close 1 support of the army.