Decorated NZ WW2 airman dies

Highly decorated World War 2 airman Wing Commander Hugh Miller, survivor of a ditching in the North Sea after a horror bombing operation before winning plaudits for dramatically cutting accident rates at training units, has died in Blenheim.

Mr Miller's death yesterday at the age of 95 was reported in a newspaper death notice today.

Hayden Hugh James Miller ended the war with an OBE, a DFC, an Air Force Cross (AFC) and no fewer than four mentions in dispatches.

Born March 31, 1914, Mr Miller was teaching at a Hamilton school when he decided he wanted to be an airman. He was granted an RAF short-service commission in 1939 and reached England three days before the outbreak of war.

His first posting, to 77 Squadron in Yorkshire at the height of the Battle of Britain in 1940, was a taste of things to come.

He took all day on a slow train to reach the squadron's base at Linton-on-Ouse and arrived to find he was on operations that night.

"They were so short of pilots at that stage," he later remembered.

"We bombed invasion barges at Calais."

Mr Miller did 10 trips as a second pilot, then was given command of his own Whitley, an ungainly, antiquated, twin-engined aircraft that was unheated and carried rudimentary navigation aids.

On Guy Fawkes night 1940 Mr Miller bombed Turin, lumbering over the Alps to Italy. On the return leg the bomber encountered atrocious weather, strong winds pushed the aircraft far to the east and the radio operator could not get bearings or fixes. The bomber and its four-man crew were hopelessly lost.

The airmen guessed they might be over France's Cherbourg Peninsula. Instead they were over the North Sea when daylight broke, flying up England's east coast but out of sight of land and headed for the Arctic.

Mr Miller's desperation decision saved them. "I said, `let's turn northwest and see if we can find something that way'."

At last they were flying toward England but still didn't know it.

Finally, after a numbing 12 hours 50 minutes and out of petrol, Mr Miller made an amazing landing in 3m waves - alongside a navy patrol boat that just happened to be there.

The patrol crew told Mr Miller he had ditched just outside a minefield on England's northeast coast.

Awarded the DFC after his tour finished, Mr Miller spent most of the rest of the war at bomber units, refining training and maintenance manuals and pilot training instructions. He had been told by air force authorities to try to cut the horrendous accident rate that was killing hundreds of young airmen.

His OBE, AFC and mentions in dispatches were awarded for his outstanding work in this field.

The citation for the OBE, awarded in 1946, noted his year-long work at one station had cut the unit's record from one with the highest number of accidents to the one with the fewest.

Mr Miller transferred to the RNZAF in late 1943 and was part of the New Zealand contingent at the Victory Parade in London in June 1946.

He is survived by his wife, son and four daughters.

- NZPA