This is a
very brief account of just one of the 11,000
aircrew
New Zealand supplied for WW2; a Hawkes Bay
country lad, G.G.White.
In 1940 at the age of 20 Geof White
was quite happy to remain working on the Takapau farm
where he was born. The Battle of Britain was over, but
the situation in Europe was not looking good.
He decided the honourable thing to do was to join up.
Although at that stage his feet had never
left the ground, he applied for the Air Force, since this
seemed an air war.
It was a 14
month wait before ground training in Levin.
Then a shift to New Plymouth to be introduced to
Tiger Moths,
followed by more flying at Ohakea in Hawker
Hinds.
Within months, Geof found himself with a small
group of
fledging pilots who were told to pack their kits
and board a boat. After leaving port, they were
informed
their destination was England.
Further training at a base near
Bristol this time on the Miles Master and Hurricanes,
where Geof proved himself to be above average in flying
and aerial gunnery.
He was
posted to Biggin Hill 611 Spitfire squadron,
whose main task was escorting daylight bombers
over France
and intercepting hit and run Germans attacking
the
South coast of England.
611 Sqdn Biggin Hill
After several months, he was again
boarded onto a ship.
This time, after leaving port, the destination announced
was Gibraltar, where he, (and eight others),
were to fly Mk IX Spitfires the 1000 miles in three hops
to Malta and be based there.
This latter journey alone was full of incidences, two
aircraft did not make it.
Malta was a
handy target for both German and Italian bombers
and fighters. This strategic base was a thorn in
the Axis side.
The airfields of Malta were bombed with regular
occurrence.
Malta. 126 sqdrn with C.O
Geof
White's Spit breaks off
attack on freighter
The five
squadrons based there had plenty to do.
As well as ground and shipping attacks, Geof
White downed several
enemy aircraft, plus at one stage, under heavy
enemy fire,
set a 1000 ton freighter burning with a low level
attack.
The ship eventually ran aground on the Italian
coast.
2 bombed Spits.Malta
109 forced landed Malta
Another Hun less fortunate.
The
exploits encountered in Malta would fill several chapters
but here is his account of his last operational sortie:
“ With the
invasion of Sicily by the Allies, our flight (126
Squadron) was sent off to hunt
Messerschmitt 109’s which were shooting up the front
line towards Syracuse.
When we arrived I got behind one fairly smartly but when
I fired, the cannon in the port wing didn’t
work and the recoil from the working one slewed the
aircraft to one side enough to ruin my aim.
I turned on him again and the same thing happened. At
this stage tracer streamed past
my cockpit from behind and I looked back to see a 109
firing at me luckily from long range.
He didn’t look that dangerous but I thought I had
better do something about it.
He was about a1000 yards behind and about 1000 feet
higher, so I pulled up into a fairly steep
climb. Looking back I saw he hadn’t followed and was
heading back toward his base.
I turned and gave chase to a second one closing the gap
to a perfect position about 200
yards behind, and knowing the canons were useless, gave
him a long burst with the six
.303 machine guns and I got the distinct impression he
was receiving quite a bit of damage.
He dropped down into a long narrow valley but I kept
above and behind him, lowered the
nose to give him a couple of short bursts. He finally
came up to my level because there was
a ridge ahead. I thought at this stage he would bail out
( this had happened in the past when
the canopy was suddenly ejected and the pilot jumped out
right in front of my nose), but
apparently he decided to do a forced landing. There was a
flat piece of land in front which
looked fairly rough. He ran the 109 with its wheels up
onto the uneven ground, it slid along OK for
a short distance, but then there was an awful explosion
and that was the end of him.”
Spit 1X in pen at Malta
At the end
of this action Geof White reported sick,
and spent the next 12 months hospitalised in
England with TB.
It was the end of his fighting career.
