Notable Airman

Samoa Claims This

Distinguished service has been rendered by Sergeant-Pilot Andrew Kronfeld, of the New Ze a}and Fighter Squadron, attached to the RAF.

He is a grandson of a famous old Samoan trading family, and his mother was a member of the Pecham family, also of Samoa. The later generations of Kron felds are well-known in Auckland s com mercial life. Here is a bright story of the young airman, told by a irutn writer last December:— The Duke of Connaught gave a young New Zealand Sergeant-Pilot, Kronfeld, the biggest whisky of his life the other day.

Andy got shot in the knee returning from a sweep over France. But. what worried him more, he hadn t enough petrol and was kept hanging about await

*ng Permission to land. Finally, he had t 0 Crash his plane into a field * When he walked up to the only house nearby he found it was a big one. He was startled to find it belonged to the Duke of Connaught, who immediately asked him in for a drink.

“You don’t mind a couple of fingers, do you „ said the Dukej and imme diately poured out, to use Andy’s own words, “a five-finger nobler of the best whisky I have ever drunk in my lif e » The New Zealand squadron to which Kronfeld is attached is thinking of mak- \ he Duke its adviser on strong liquors.

When Western Samoa subscribed a few thousand pounds, wherewith to buy a fighter plane, to be called “Western Samoa”, Pilot Sergeant Kronfeld was the man selected to fly it. Up to De cember, he had accounted for two or three Messerschmitt fighters.