BIG FLYING-BOAT’S SUCCESS

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 184, 1 May 1940, Page 9

BIG FLYING-BOAT’S SUCCESS

Nazi Fighter Shot Down (British Official Wireless and Press Assn.) LONDON, April 29. It is announced officially that a Sunderland flying-boat recently shot down a Messerschmitt 110 fighter. If bombing by German Junkers 88’s over a Norwegian _ fiord had been more accurate, it is probable that this terse announcement would have read very differently. The flying-boat had just landed and the captain was rowing in a whaler to a nearby warship when a heavy attack was made by junkers aeroplanes. Quickly the flying-boat’s captain returned to his craft and began to taxi over the water' to dodge the bombs. After a while the llying-boats’s engines became hot, and. in order to cool them tlie pilot took off, only to be immediately attacked by a Messerschmitt 110. The German machine, however, was unable to withstand the concentrated fire from the heavilyarmed Sunderland, and crashed in the sea.

The Sunderland flying-boats are some of the largest service aeroplanes in use. Weighing over 20 tons, and with a wing span of just over 112 feet, they had a crew of 10 and carry out reconnaissance flights lasting 14 to 16 hours. They are able to carry out shallow bombing dives, as several submarines know to their cost, and their heavy armament —they have two power-operated turrets- —makes them a formidable proposition even for the nimble Messerschmitt 110, though their lop speed is only 210 miles an hour, against the German fighters’ 370 miles an hour. These boats are very manoeuvrable, in spite of their great size, and are a development of the well-known “Empire” class of flyingboat of commercial fame. Attached to the Coastal Command, these aircraft have taken part in the command’s activities, which include the convoying of merchant ships against air attack, and it is the Command’s proud boast that an air-escort-ed convoy has never yet lost a ship. The Sunderlands, which -were used to land the experts who preceded the British troops landing in Norway after tlie German invasion, have also cooperated with other branches of the Air Force and the Navy in. driving off practically all German vessels from between Bergen and Trondheim.