ENEMY REPULSED

Timaru Herald, Volume CLIII, Issue 22476, 11 January 1943, Page 4

ENEMY REPULSED

Superb Air Tactics By Dominion Airmen Prom the Official War Correspondent with the N.Z.E.F. ADVANCED PACIFIC AIR BASE, December 20. Superb teamwork and air tactics carried a reconnaissance-bomber aircraft of the Royal New Zealand Air Force safely through a brisk running battle with three Japanese long-range Zero fighters. Lasting 17 minutes the engagement was broken off by the Japanese after they had failed to outmanoeuvre the New Zealand machine. Captained by a North Canterbury pilot, Flying Officer G. Gudsell, the aircraft had sighted and reported to base the presence of a Japanese naval task force. It was continuing to observe the ships’ movements when three Zeros dived on it with the sun behind them. They jettisoned their extra fuel tanks as they attacked. As if on the bridge of a warship, Flying Officer Gudsell directed his aircraft’s defence by remote control. He left his co-pilot to fly the aeroplane and took up a standing position from which he could watch the Zeros at their constant attempts to close in. Through the inter-cornmunication telephone system he kept up a running fire of warnings and orders to the copilot and to the members of the crew who manned the machine-guns: "There’s a so-and-so coining in from about 10 o’clock," or “Hard to starboard!” or “Hard to port!” They knew what to do, and for more than a quarter of an hour the New Zealand machine weaved and twisted and banked its way out of the enemy's sights. Japanese gunbursts, flying wide, raised harmless but unpleasant spurts of water on the sea. The New Zealanders fought back with their own guns, squirting lead at the Zeros at every brief opportunity.