RUNNING COMMENTARY SPELT RAIDER'S DOOM

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 27, 11 March 1942, Page 3

RUNNING COMMENTARY SPELT RAIDER'S DOOM

—■-■ — Two Hurricane pilots of a Polish squadron were able to shoot clown and destroy a Junkers 88 off the north-east coast just before dark recently bccause a running commentary on their movements, as they twisted and turned in thick cloud after their quarry, was kept up by a chain of Royal Observer Corps posts spread out along the high Northumberland cliffs, states the Air Ministry News Service. When the Hurricane pilots were first told by their ground controller to try and intercept the enemy plane it was some distance away from them and living in the cloud towards the south, while they were going in a different direction, lhe cliff watchers of the Observer Corps heard it pass overhead, while men at another post kept track of the Hurricanes, Avhich they could not see. Both posts kept in constant touch with the ground controller by telephone. He was able to give the Polish pilots instructions to alter their course, and then as the pilot of the Junkers 88 somehow sensed that he was being chased and -went first in one direction and then another, watchers all along the coast took up the record of the three machines and eventually knew by the sound that they had come together. Crashed Into Sea While they waited for the results tliey heard the 1 sound of machinegun fire above the clouds. A few moments later the Junkers 88 came diving down through the murk with the Hurricanes in hot pursuit. Smoke poured from the raider as the pilot made one last attempt to dodge back into cloud failing to shake off one of his pursuers. He dived headlong into the sea in full view of some of the men who had plotted his course to destruction. Eight New Zcalanders of another squadron flying in pairs on patrol further south over the cast coast at dusk also had a game of hide-and-seelc with a Junkers 88. Each pair momentarily saw it slipping out of cloud. Each pair managed to get in a short burst from their guns at long range and each pair saw then bullets do slight damage. The Gerj man pilot did not once remain in 1 the open long enough to lie brought I effectively to combat.