THREE DECORATIONS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 88, Issue 3, 5 January 1944, Page 2

THREE DECORATIONS

AWARDED N.Z. AIRMEN IN MEDITERRANEAN (Special Correspondent—N.Z.P.A.) Reed, 6 p.m, London, .Jan. 3. Two lo.mer members of the Net. Zealand Spitfire Squadron who have distinguished themselves in the Mediterranean are Squadron-Leader E. D. . Mackie, Waihi, and 1< lying-Obicer S. F. Browne. Wellington. They have won three decorations between them 1 and have shot down a total of 19 enemy aircraft. Mackie, who holds the D.F.C. and Bar, commands one of the highestscoring squadrons in the R.A.F.—it has shot down 292 enemy aircraft—and recently shot down his I4tn aircraft over the Sangro valley. He was leading a flight of lour Spitfires when he sighted 12 Messerschmitt 109’s. He led an attack and fired at two, then chased three more down, and firing two bursts at one of them saw it crash. He had been in many sweeps with the New Zealand squadron ovc. France, and was regarded as one of the squadron's best pilots. He shot down seven planes during the Tunisian campaign, and five more while operating trorn Malta. During the Salerno battle he led his squadron from Sicily on long-range patrols over Salerno, doing two patrols daily for five days, and in this time he got his 13th enemy, a Dornier. Flight-Sergt. G. C. S. Buchan, Christchurch, is tne only other New Zealander at present in Mackie's squadron. Flying-Officer Browne, “Little Brownie," as he used to be called in the New Zealand squadron, was in Naples before he left for Tunis after his tour' of operations expired. He went to Soukelkhemis as a pilotofficer earlier this year and joined the final stages of the Tunisian campaign with Pilot-Officer R. Fisher, Cambridge. He was attacking Illboats in Tunis harbour one day when they were attacked by Messerschmitt 109’s. Browne got one and later got another over Jez el Bab. Last July he went to Malta from Mateur ami took part in night flying over Sicily before its invasion. On the first day of the invasion Browne shot down a Junkers 88 over Syracuse. The following day he and Fisher shared a Junkers, but Browne had to bale out after being hit. He found an antiaircraft battery and returned to Malta in a tank-landing craft. He flew the next day and shared a Messerschmitt 109 over Sicily. Browne also patrolled over Salerno and then shot down his fifth German over the Volturno River. It was a Messerschmitt 109. Eight Spitfires attacked 12 Germans, shooting down four without loss. He was awarded the D.F.C. in September, 1543,