SQUADRONS MOVE FORWARD

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVII, Issue 23112, 29 January 1945, Page 4

SQUADRONS MOVE FORWARD

Advanced Pacific Bases New i Zealand Task Force Official R.N.Z.A.F. News Service SOUTH-WEST PACIFIC, Jan. 22. Two squadrons of New Zealand Corsair pilots have moved forward into this area to replace fighter squadrons which have returned to the Dominion for a well-earned rest from operational flying. The squadrons have commenced operations on two islands which recently became new forward bases for the New Zealand air task force—one is our most forward area in the Pacific.

The new squadrons arrived with the New Year. Most of the pilots have seen service in the Pacific previously. Both squadrons, with slight changes in personnel, were among those which saw service in Bougainville last year. One is commanded by Squadron Leader G. M. Fitzwater, of Hawera. He was a flying instructor at Woodbourne for about two years before he joined an earlier Corsair squadron as supernumerary flight commander under Squadron Leader C. R. Bush, D.F.C., of Gisborne. Squadron Leader Fitzwater’s two flight commanders are Flight Lieutenants G- R. B. Highet, D.F.C.. of Wellington, and D. A. Youngs (Auckland), both seasoned pilots with a sound knowledge of Pacific conditions and the aircraft they fly. The squadron is engaged chiefly in fighter patrols and protecting important Allied installations. It is fortunate in having the services of an intelligence officer who has had flying experience and also knows the Pacific. He is Pilot Officer S.M. Bevan (Nelson) formerly a wireless onerator-air gunner, who was with a bomber reconnaissance squadron in New Caledonia and later flew with the first New Zealand squadron to fly Avengers in the Pacific Squadron Leader B. H. Thomson, of Gore, commands the second squadron which will operate over Kavieng and other New Ireland targets, seeking out Japanese installations and helping to reduce the enemy's numbers and destroy his supply areas and communications. He is an experienced fighter pilot and has a squadron of keen and capable pilots whose one ambition is to hit at the Jap wherever he can be found —and hit hard. They know they can find him on the ground, and they will be all the more pleased if they can strike at him in the air.