D.F.C. AWARD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25800, 22 March 1945, Page 4

D.F.C. AWARD

FORMER OTAGO FOOTBALLER EIGHT HOURS ADRIFT IN NORTH SEA Private advice has been received that Flight Lieutenant Brook Taylor, a son of Mr H. E. Taylor, of Wellington, has been awarded the D.F.C. Before going overseas Flight Lieutenant Taylor was employed in the veterinary section of the Department of Agriculture at Dunedin. He was a member of the Alhambra Football Club senior fifteen just before the war, playing either at wing or centre three-quarter, and it was as a wing three-quarter that he gained selection in the Otago team for the northern tour in 1939. Before coming to Dunedin, Flight Lieutenant Taylor attended Sydney University, and played in the University fifteen in the New South Wales Rugby Union's competition for two seasons. A cablegram from London last week gave details of the experience of two members of the crew of an aircraft of the R.A.F. Coastal Command, one of whom was Flight Lieutenant Taylor. Following the "ditching” of blazing aircraft, Flight Lieutenant Taylor, who was the second pilot, and his captain, Flight Lieutenant E. F. Davis, were adrift in a dinghy in the North Sea for nearly eight hours before they were rescued by a high-speed launch. The aircraft was forced to “ditch” after attacking enemy shipping, when it received a hit which ignited the petrol tank. The fire spread to the fuselage, and soon the whole rear portion of the aircraft was ablaze. , . The dinghy overturned after the airmen got clear of the wreckage, but Flight Lieutenants Davis and Taylor managed to right it. Meanwhile, the navigator, who appeared to be unconscious, and who had been held up by Flight Lieutenant Taylor, had disappeared, and although a search was made it was unsuccessful. In a cablegram received by his relatives recently Flight Lieutenant Taylor stated that he was now out of hospital and was spending his leave in London.