Bruce McAlister has, it seems, no known grave. The brief inscription on the family stone in Invercargill's Eastern Cemetery, however, says plenty.
Bruce joined the Royal New Zealand Air Force in January, 1940, and was a pilot with 258 Squadron, RAF, based at RAF Kenley. On June 16, 1941, he scored a kill while on bomber escort over France.
258 went by aircraft carrier to reinforce Malta in October, 1941. The Squadron flew defensive patrols from the island for a while and then came the news of the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbour and the invasion of British possessions in Asia. The Squadron's Hurricanes were crated and taken by ship to Takoradi, on Africa's Gold Coast, which was the beginning of the RAF's transfer route for fighter reinforcements to the Eastern Mediterranean. 258 spent some time operating out of Alexandria, Egypt, then went again by aircraft carrier to fly off to Batavia in the Dutch East Indies (now Djakarta in Indonesia) and then to Singapore. They were informed that the Japanese air forces were little more than obselete biplanes and inferior copies of Western designs. They were in for a shock.
On reaching Palembang on their way to Singapore they were told that the RAF in were being severely beaten by the Japanese. But they were also told that the RAF were flying the Brewster Buffalo there - the Buffalo was an obselete fighter, lacking in engine power and guns and an easy target for the Japanese. Their newly-bolstered confidence did not last long.
Bruce's personal story was not the easiest one to track down. But, after a few minutes' searching, I found the following account of his last minutes in "Unsung Heroes: True Stories of America's Citizen Airmen in the Skies of World War Two," by Jay Stout. I am deeply indebted to Mr Stout for his research.
John A Campbell, a US citizen, grew up near San Diego, California and held a private pilot's licence when the war began in 1939. He was recruited by the Royal Air Force in late 1940, by which time it was desperately short of pilots.
"During my first combat in Singapore, we attacked a formation of bombers. I got some hits on one bomber but am not certain that it went down. I dove away to get some speed, and by the time I got back up again the bombers were too far away, and there was nobody else around.
"Then I looked down and saw two Japanese fighters - I think they were Imperial Japanese Navy Zeros. They had a Hurricane (flown by Bruce McAlister) boxed in. Every time he'd try to turn one way, they'd take a shot at him. So I pulled around and started down to help him. Well, he must have thought I was another Zero because he started taking lead on me. ("taking lead" - turning the nose of his fighter in order to aim ahead of the enemy so that bullets and enemy collide) So I turned around and showed him the bottom of my aeroplane. With that duck-egg blue on the bottom of the aeroplane, the roundels were easy to see.
"When I turned back, he had turned into the Japanese. Unfortunately, they nailed him. When I saw that there was no helping him, I looked for the sun, found it, and climbed up into it."
With a height advantage, Campbell dived on the two Zeros. He hit one with a short burst from his twelve machine guns then held down the button until the Japanese fighter was "a great big ball of flame with two wings sticking out of it."
In the chaotic situation of the siege and surrender of Singapore, some of 258 Squadron managed to escape back to Djakarta. Most of them were killed or captured as Japanese forces continued their invasion and the survivors managed to escape by ship bound for Australia. The ship was sunk en route with no survivors.
As well as on the family stone at Invercargill, Bruce McAlister is commemorated on the Kranji War Memorial in the Singapore War Cemetery.
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| Invercargill Cemetery. |
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