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| Aviation Art Collecton - Warrant Officer Bryan Cox |
Born in 1925, this New Zealand fighter pilot Bryan Cox flew Corsairs in the Pacific. On January 14th, 1945, 36 Kiwi Corsairs based on Green Island were sent to attack the Japanese base at Rabaul. Flight Lieutenant Francis George Keefe in one of the Corsairs was shot down by flak and his parachute was seen opening and landing in the water. The following day Bryan Cox along with fifteen other Corsair pilots of 14 sqd and 16 Sqd were sent on the rescue mission for Keefe, escorting a flying boat. A raft was dropped and the mission may have been a success, except Francis Keefe was picked up by a Japanese patrol boat, and died of gangrene from his many wounds 10 days later in a prison camp. Returning to base, the 16 Corsair pilots encountered a bad storm, but due to lack of fuel could not fly around the strom and instead had to go through it. Bryan Cox was separated from the rest of the Corsairs when his radio and light went out due to a cockpit failure and Bryan veered away in fear of a mid air collision, not managing to regain contact whith the others. Seven pilots were lost at sea, from 14 Sqd. Flight Lieutenant BS Hay, Flying Officer AN Saward, Flight Sergeant IJ Munro, Flight Sergeant JS McArthur, and from 16 Sqd, Flight Sergeant RW Albrecht, Flight Lieutenant TRF Johnson, and Flying Officer G. Randell. Bryan Cox with only minutes of fuel left and contemplating ditching finally saw the outline of Green Island and managed with not more than seconds of fuel remaining to land. After the war Bryan was to become one of New Zealands best known flying instructors, and he spent many years as Chief Instructor at Ardmore, now a popular civil aerodrome which was the same airfield that Cox had been based at flying the Corsairs. Following the end of the war, Bryan had served in J Force, with No.14 Squadron RNZAF flying duties in Japan. He was an early observer to the horrors of Hiroshima. He served there untill 1947, and is secretary of the New Zealand fighter pilots association. He died on 12th June 2021.  Died : 2021 |
| Based on many years of experience in dealing with thousands of aviation signatures, we have estimated the value this signature adds to a print as £55 |
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