N.Z. SQUADRON

Timaru Herald, Volume CLIV, Issue 22670, 25 August 1943, Page 5

N.Z. SQUADRON

Attacks Over France (7.30 p.m.) LONDON. Aug. 23. The New Zealand Spitfire Squadron met a large concentration of F.W. 190’s while escorting U.S.A.A.F. medium bombers attacking Beaumont le Roger airfield on August 22. The FockeWulfs made a head-on attack on the New Zealanders, but Fighting French planes above swung down behind tlie Germans shooting down two. The Polish wing shot down three more and a Canadian squadron leader got one. The New Zealanders suffered some losses.

Pilot Officer J. B. Small, of Lower Hutt, completed a tour in Lancasters. He bombed Essen four times, and also went to Wilhelmshafen, Hamburg. Stuttgart and Stettin. His aircraft was badly hit by flak over Wuppertal while incendiaries from aircraft went through his port wing, smashing the outer petrol tank. As a result he landed with only a few gallons to spare. He was attacked by night fighters twice. He had three inches of ice from on his windscreen during one Essen raid, while once, when landing at his base, he saw bombs and flares from a German aircraft attacking a target a few miles away. Sergeant W. M. Gordon, of Christchurch, who has flown 271 operational hours and trained in No. 1 course in the Empire air training scheme, went five times to Essen and Bremen. Once a piece of shrapnel hit his parachute harness. It struck the buckle which haved his life.