DOMINION AIRMEN WIN THEIR SPURS

Southland Times, Issue 25666, 8 May 1945, Page 11

DOMINION AIRMEN WIN THEIR SPURS

(R.N.Z.A.F. Official News Service) New Zealand airmen have fought everywhere in the world where there have been enemies to fight, and they have made there mark wherever the opportunity has offered. This is reflected in the large number of awards for gallantry made to them. When the war broke out there were about 500 New Zealanders serving in the Royal Air Force, and more than 9000 went to the United Kingdom, either direct or through the Empire Training Plan, about 1000 served in the Middle East and about 1000 in India and the Far East before the flow to Canada ceased and the main function of the R.N.Z.A.F. was concentrated in the Pacific. So that, judged on a numerical basis alone, New Zealand’s contribution was considerable in relation to her manpower resource's. But the quality of that contribution transcended mere numbers. Right from the first round, when the Luftwaffe, supremely confident and arrogant from its continental victories, set about trying to add Great Britain to its list of knockouts, New Zealand airmen were in the battle wherever the enemy was thrusting. They earned undying glory among “the few” who preserved Great Britain from the most that Goering could send against her, and they went on alongside men from every corner of the Empire and its Allies to a strength that obliterated the Luftwaffe.

EFFECT OF AIR POWER They had their share in driving home to- Germany’s warlords a lesson forgotten or ignored from the Great War of 1914-1918. Then, Hitler and his henchmen may have remembered by now, about half of the flying personnel of most R.F.C. and R.A.F. squadrons came from the Dominions. This time, tens of thousands of determined young men in every part of the Empire were ready to undergo training as soon as facilities could be provided. Germany illustrated the possibilities of air power. The Allied nations took the lesson to heart, and it may not be too much to say that air power decided this conflict. Certainly it shaped campaigns, won battles, and revolutionized the whole of warfare.

New Zealand has every right to take a great pride in her share of all this. Her greatest part in Allied air operations in Europe was played by the thousands of men who served with composite R.A.F. squadrons. In every battle on any front, it is safe to assume that there was a New Zealander doing a job of some sort —at the controls of an aircraft, at the navigator’s table, behind the guns, or with the ground crew. A guide can be taken from the fact that to the end of 1943 New Zealand had sent -overseas sufficient air personnel to man the equivalent of 2000 bombers and 1500 fighters. Individually they have ranked among the leading airmen of all nations, and

their roll of bomber and fighter aces is impressive. Members of the youngest service of the smallest member of the British Commonwealth of Nations, they gave a new meaning to the name “New Zealand.” “COBBER” KAIN The deeds of many of these men have served as an inspiration to the whole of the service. One of the outstanding fighter pilots of the war, for example, was the late Flying Officer Edgar

Share In Allied Victories In Europe

James (“Cobber”) Kain, D.F.C., R.A.F., who. was killed in June 1940 while doing aerobatics over his aerodrome in France before going on leave. His career, brief though it was, became legendary. A member of N 0.74 Squadron, one of the two fighter squadrons which went to France with file Advanced Air Striking Force early in 1940, he was believed to have destroyed nearly 40 enemy aircraft. He was the first air ace of this war, and an early indication of what the Luftwaffe could expect from the “poor deluded country lads” from down under. It is not too much to claim that his example was a tonic to the whole of the R.A.F.

Men like Wing Commander A. C. Deere, D. 5.0., D.F.C. and bar, D.F.C. (U.S.), Croix de Guerre, R.A.F.; Flight Lieutenant R. B. Hesselyn, D.F.C., D.F.M. and bar; Group Captain D. J. Scott, D. 5.0., 0.8. E., D.F.C. and bar; the late Wing Commander R J. C. Grant, D.F.C. and bar, D.F.M.—the list goes on and on —they head a glorious company. Many of them were attached at one time or another to the famous No. 485 (N.Z.) Spitfire Squadron, and some of their outstanding exploits went to its credit. BOMBER COMMAND The same story applies equally to Bomber Command. New Zealanders were members of R.A.F. crews every-

where, and their qualities of determination, initiative and leadership earned them heavy responsibilities and a prominent share of decorations. In the later stages. of the war the attention, of the world was focussed on the realization of Britain’s promise in the continuous stream of mammoth raids on Germany’s vitals, raids which demanded the highest degree of efficiency from crews and a perfection of organization never previously approached. New Zealanders in their hundreds took part in all of these raids, and others were responsible for various organization duties.

Before that, and while they were going on, other New Zealanders were flying patrols, submarine and shipping searches, air-sea rescue services, escort duties, ferry services, supply missions and all the other routine duties everywhere between the Arctic and the equator, and the same qualities of reliability and individual determination were evident in all of them. Intruder raids into enemy-occupied Europe, strafing enemy transport, supply centres and troop concentrations, destroying checks to ground advances, harrying Nazi moves —all these tasks and more gave scope to New Zealand fliers of Mosquitoes, Beaufighters, Typhoons, fighter-bomb-ers and medium bombers. NEW ZEALAND SQUADRONS Serving first in the United Kingdom and later in various theatres, there have been seven New Zealand squadrons —heavy and medium bombers, fighters, torpedo-bombers, and flying boats. Tlie history of these units dates from June 1, 1939, when a New Zealand Flight was formed at an R.A.F. base in England. The nucleus of what became No. 75 (N.Z.) Squadron was a party of R.N.Z.A.F. personnel sent to the United Kingdom to take delivery of Wellington bombers and fly them out to the Dominion. They stayed with their Wellingtons and took part in the earliest bombing raids on Germany.