STRANGE INCIDENTS IN AIR WAR

Southland Times, Issue 25691, 28 June 1943, Page 5

STRANGE INCIDENTS IN AIR WAR

(Special Australian Correspondent, N.Z.P.A.)

(Rec. 7 p.m.) SYDNEY, June 27. The war in the air is productive of many strange incidents. Here are two which occurred recentlv in New Guinea. When he parachuted at 18,000 feet from a bomber on a night flight, Staff Sergeant James Lott, radio engineer drifted through a snow storm. He landed in some of New Guinea’s worst jungle country. After two days walking he met some natives. Carried part of the way, it took Sergeant Lott seven days before he reached a small air strip where he was picked up by a Piper Cub Scout plane arid taken to hospital. A Japanese medium bomber and the Piper Cub were involved in a strange dogfight over New Guinea this week. Neither won, but the honours went to the Cub, piloted by Captain Gilbert Portmore, of Massachusetts, United States. Each time the bomber dived Captain Portmore turned the Cub underneath it so that the bigger plane overshot its mark. Eventually Captain Portmore landed on the beach where the natives quickly dragged his small plane into the shelter of coconut palms. Cheated, the Japanese bomber flew off. Captain Portmore has just been awarded the D.F.C. for 50 operational missions against the enemy.