Unsung Heroes

Commercial Pilots on the Job

EXPLOITS of the Allied airmen deser vedly make the headlines daily; but commercial aircraft and their pilots, who are doing magnificent work

in the Allied cause, go almost unsung.

Some months ago, it was reported in the “PIM” that commer cial airmen had picked up 74 Austra lians who had been stranded in a remote part of New Guinea due to the Japanese invasion of that Ter ritory, and flown them to safety.

Captain O. D.

Denny, who was one of Guinea Airways’ best known and most popular pilots in New Guinea before he joined Qantas Empire Airways, was in charge of that opera tion. This was under taken in bad weather conditions.

Some time ago it was revealed that Captain Denny had

participated in another such operation— this time playing a major role in the final preparation of an Australian base in New Guinea.

In a series of secret night flights, urgent equipment and personnel were carried between Australia and New Guinea. Practically all of these trips were made in bad flying weather —the South-west Pacific specialises in that type of thing—with visibility extremely limited. None of the pilots who carried the job through, did so without one or two “incidents.”

Once, when Captain Denny had not sighted the coast for over two hours because of rain and low cloud, he had to make a forced landing to establish his position. On another occasion, when taking off from an anchorage in pitch darkness, he found that his flying-boat was bumping over a reef instead of over the sea. He delivered his last load just a few hours before the Japs made an unsuccessful attack on Australian posi tions there.

Orme Denny.