FINE RECORD OF N.Z. AIRMEN

Southland Times, Issue 25546, 14 December 1944, Page 4

FINE RECORD OF N.Z. AIRMEN

AWARDS TOTAL MORE THAN 1000 (P.A.) WELLINGTON, December 13. “The announcement of a further 18 awards to New Zealand airmen carries the total won by them in all theatres of this war past the 1000 mark,” the Minister of Defence, Mr Jones, said today. “This magnificent record of sacrifice and achievement is a tribute to the Royal New Zealand Air Force in particular and to the whole of the Dominion’s fighting services in general. Throughout the five and a-quarter years of war their deeds have been of a quality in which we take the greatest pride and for which their country must be eternally grateful. . The Minister said that Allied air power was now supreme and the contrast between this and the earlier years of the war did not need emphasis. New Zealanders had played a part in the dark days, as there were 500 of them in the Royal Air Force at the outbreak. In all 11,529 men had left New Zealand fully or partly trained for flying duties. Of these 7,511 had gone through the Commonwealth Air Training Scheme in Canada. JOB AHEAD IN PACIFIC There was still a tremendous job to be done in the Pacific, the Minister said, and it could not be said that the , end of the war was round the corner. However, because of the way New Zealanders had fought the position ini the Pacific was much better than we had the right to expect two or three years ago. Mr Jones said 26 New Zealand airmen had received three or more decorations and there were six who had won four decorations. Thirty members of the Royal New Zealand Air Force and 24 New Zealanders serving with the Royal Air Force had won the D.S.O. and one had a bar to it. Four, hundred and seventy-four members of' the R.N.Z.A.F. and 143 New Zealanders in the Royal Air Force had received the D.F.C. Fifty-three have been awarded a bar and two had a second bar. One hundred and sixty-eight New Zealanders had received the D.F.M., 50 had been awarded the A.F.C. and 12 the B.E.M. There were also five C.G.M.’s, one M.C., five G.M.’s, two MT.M.’s and four A.F.M.’s, making a total of 1,013. Ten New Zealanders had the American D.F.C. and nine the U.S. Air Medal. There were also 13 awards from Poland, France, Belgium, Russia, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and Norway. Twenty-one British Empire honours had also been conferred upon New Zealanders and 170 airmen had been mentioned in dispatches.