Kortney Blunk

Beaufighter Night Fighter Kortney Blunk

Air combat is the tactical art of moving, turning, and situating a fighter aircraft to attain a position from which an attack can be made on another aircraft.

Mervyn Shipard RAAF was the pilot in a leading night fighter crew, with Douggie Oxby RAF, on 89 Squadron RAF on Malta and in North Africa 1942-43. Already with one victory at night over the UK, they took a transfer to the Mediterranean rather than go on rest. They destroyed a total of thirteen enemy aircraft, probably destroyed and damaged others in dangerous night interceptions over Malta and on the north coast of Africa. They survived crashes and potentially lethal flying at night and in bad weather. Shipard was a natural at this kind of flying and Oxby made the pair successful in night air combat. At all stages of his flying career, Shipard was highly rated and the assessments are included in the text. When called back to Australia by the government, Shipard became a valuable instructor but decided to take the opportunity of transferring to airline flying, and spent the rest of his career in that profession. His most frightening experience came in a Qantas Boeing B707 on take-off from Melbourne's Tullamarine airport-related in the text. Many of Shipard's victims can be identified from German records and this detail is included. Detail of the career of Douggie Oxby is included - he became the most successful Allied night fighter radar operator of WW2. This is their story.