AIRMAN FOUND IN RANGOON

Southland Times, Issue 25670, 12 May 1945, Page 4

AIRMAN FOUND IN RANGOON

PREVIOUSLY BELIEVED KILLED (R.N.Z.A.F. Official News Service) EASTERN AIR COMMAND, May 9. Flight Lieutenant Clifford Emeny, of Te Kiri (Taranaki), who was posted missing, believed killed last November, was found alive and well jn gaol at Rangoon and has now reached Calcutta. When Flight Lieutenant Emeny was shot down near Meiktila* by Japanese fighters last November he astounded the other crews of his squadron by calmly giving a running broadcast description as his Mosquito crashed. The aircraft hit the ground with such force that it burst into flames immediately and Flight Lieutenant Emeny and his Canadian navigator were both reported missing, believed killed. Flight Lieutenant Emeny states he owes his life to his “little tomahawk” which he always carried with him and which was long regarded as the squadron joke. He cut himself out of the aircraft with the tomahawk and dived into soft mud as the machine was burning. The navigator dragged him clear and they crawled to a village where the Burmese robbed them and later the Burmese police held them until the Japanese came. Flight Lieutenant Emeny and the navigator were kept standing for four nights and three days without food to try to make them divulge information, but the Japanese finally gave up and moved them to Rangoon. NO TREATMENT Although he had skin tom off a leg and had suffered burns about the head in the crash the Japanese did not give Flight Lieutenant Emeny any treatment but he was able to use his own first-aid kit. In the Rangoon gaol he took charge of the airmen’s hospital although the Japanese provided no facilities. By his cast-iron discipline, Flight Lieutenant Emeny forced the patients to maintain the will to live. During his term as doctor he treated 41 patients, only three of whom died, in Spite of the complete indifference of the Japanese towards the sick.

“I am thankful for the time I spent in hospital after several prangs,” stated Flight Lieutenant Emeny in an interview. “The knowledge I gained there proved invaluable while in prison. Providing adequate nutrition was the main difficulty. The diet consisted mainly of rice with very few vegetables. Once a week we got as much meat as a normal New Zealand family eats in a weekend. That had to be sared among a hundred men. Later the Japanese gave us our money back and we pooled it to buy food. Tlie rest of the boys gave me half of it and I managed to buy enough eggs to keep the worst cases of malnutrition alive.”