SPITFIRE LEADER – THE STORY OF WING CDR EVAN ‘ROSIE’ MACKIE, DSO, DFC AND BAR, DFC (US), TOP SCORING RNZAF FIGHTER ACE

EVAN 'ROSIE' MACKIE has unjustly remained one of the least-known high- scoring fighter aces of the Commonweath Air Forces during World War II. Joining the RNZAF in January 1941, he was posted to the UK on completion of training to serve with the New Zealand Spitfire Squadron, No 485, thence to North Africa to join 243 Squadron, RAF, which he commanded during the invasions of Sicily and Italy.

He next led 92 Squadron and by early 1944, when his operational tour ended, he had already claimed some 15 enemy aircraft shot down, and shared two more.

A further tour, commencing in December 1944, took him to Holland to command 80 Squadron in the 2nd Tactical Air Force, now flying the mighty Hawker Tempest during the closing months of the war. Shortly before the conclusion of hostilities he was promoted again, this time to lead 122 Tempest Wing, bringing his personal victory tally to 20 and three shared in aerial combat, with three and another shared destroyed on the ground.

His later decorations were gazetted after the end of the European war, when such matters were no longer headline news, and were thus relegated to relative obscurity. One of the two top-scoring New Zealanders, until now he was unrecognised as one of military aviation's 'greats' by other than a handful of specialist enthusiasts.

This highly entertaining study written by a journalist aided by a historian, sets the record straight.