Informal portrait of 402781 Flight Lieutenant (Flt Lt) Neville (Happy) Ahern DSO DFC, Commander ...

Informal portrait of 402781 Flight Lieutenant (Flt Lt) Neville (Happy) Ahern DSO DFC, Commander No. 112 Sqn RAF and previously with No. 451 (Spitfire) Squadron RAAF, with a Curtiss P40 Kittyhawk aircraft of No. 451 Squadron RAAF. Flt Lt Ahern and a fellow pilot Flight Sergeant (Flt Sgt) B. Peters, while out on a patrol encountered a formation of Focke Wulfe 190s (FWs). Flt Sgt Peters of Melbourne, Vic, blew one of the enemy aircraft to pieces in the air and Flt Lt Ahern inflicted damage to several other FWs. After the spirited engagement Ahern took hurried stock of the damage done to his Kittyhawk and found to his dismay that the air speed indicator and half the starboard elevator had been shot away. There was a hole clean through the port mainplane one yard long by eighteen inches wide. There was also a gap in the rudder big enough to allow a pair of fists through and that the port tail plane and aileron were also holde. Ahern's achievement in getting his aircraft back to base, a matter of a 100 mile flight, is a striking illustrating of just how much punishment a Kittyhawk can take.