Outwitted the Japs

How Copt. Clive Bernard Outwitted the Japs

IN an article on the “Unsung Heroes of New Guinea”, a correspondent of the Melbourne “Argus” recently paid a tribute to, and told something of, the exploits of Captain Clive Bernard, of Morobe, TNG. who was killed when the Carpenter airliner of which he was co pilot crashed into a mangrove swamn a few minutes after leaving Cairns on Feb ruary 14. The other pilot was Captain E. D. Crisp.

“They were two grand men,” the corres pondent said. “They met their deaths in the course of a duty as splendid and as hazardous as the duty demanded in any fighting service in the world. Crisp and Bernard died fighting. They died fighting to save the lives of hundreds of men and women of New Guinea who. they knew, were looking to them for safety.”

The correspondent described how Ber nard took a big Lockheed plane out of the very teeth of the Japanese.

“Bernard was in Wau when 20 Jap anese light and heavy bombers came over and began to toss the Nipnonese new order on to New Guinea in the form of 250 lb. high explosive bombs. Their main attacks were aimed at the aerodrome where the Lockheed was narked, close to the edge of the field. Then the Japs began to concentrate on the plane. Ber nard had never flown the monster mono nlane alone before, but he know that if he didn’t act, the machine would be blown to pieces.

“He ran 400 yards across an airfield that rocked to the bomb blasts, unscrewed a loose cowling on the engine, started the nlane, and taxied to the end of the field.

With motors roaring he raced down the runway through a hail of bombs, took off. and piloted the great machine down a long yawning valley with the Japs in close pursuit behind him.

“Twisting and turning between the steen cliffs he dodged the hail of cannon shells and took his machine over the mountains to Pt. Moresby. Observers later discovered cartridges from the Japanese air cannons strewn for eight miles along the valley floor.”