U-BOAT HUNTING

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 285, 31 August 1942, Page 6

U-BOAT HUNTING

R.A.F. Operating Off American Coast

CO-OPERATION WITH

U.S. PLANES (British Official Wireless.)

(Received August 30, 7.30 p.m.) RUGBY, August 29.

British planes are co-operating with the American Army and Navy aircraft in the western Atlantic, says the United States Navy Department. The announcement said that the British flyers had already engaged the enemy, though no details were given of the action. According to the Air Ministry news service, the U-boat hunting squadron now operating off the American Atlantic coast is a crack Coastal Command squadron which is now flying Lockheed Hudsons. In the’early part of the war the squadron was in France flying Blenheims on Army co-operation work, but since the fall of France it has joined up with the Coastal Command and made many bombing sorties on U-boat bases on the French Atlantic coast and also on. the warships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau when they were at Brest. SUCCESSFUL IDEA Catapult Aircraft To Protect Ships (British Official-Wireless.) ’ RUGBY, August 29. It is just a year since'the idea, put forward by Mr. Churchill himself, of catapulting aircraft from . merchant ships in order to protect them from long-distance enemy bomber's, was put into practice. Before this a heavy toll of merchant ships had been taken by such raiders, but since the introduction .of catapult aircraft from merchant ships 12 months ago not a single merchant ship has been lost from a longrange bomber attack on the normal ocean routes when ships equipped with ' catapult aircraft have been in a convoy.

RAIDS ON ENGLAND Miners’ Houses Hit

(Received August 30, 7.30 p.m.) LONDON, August 29.

When enen. / raiders last night scored direct hits on miners’ houses in a village in the north-east of England, five women, two children and one man were killed and a number of children injured. A.R.P. workers rescued a babu boy alive after digging in the ruins throughout the night. An enemy plane bombed an inland town in the south of England in daylight, killing five men and one woman. •

It was announced in Berlin that the Luftwaffe last night bombed Sunderland, and in a daylight raid on Cardiff bombs were dropped on a large munitions factory, causing fires. There was slight enemy activity over Britain today. Bombs were dropped at widely-separated places and some damage and casualties were reported. One enemy bomber was shot down off the southwest coast by fighters. Yesterday morning two enemy aircraft dropped bombs on Bristol. A number of. casualties, including some fatal ones, were reported, and some damage was done. A number of passengers were killed and injured when two enemy planes dropped’ bombs near three buses'in Bristol. The buses crumpled up and burst into flames. An Melo9 was shot down by our fighers into the sea off the south-west coast of England yesterday morning.

The German High Command states that the Luftwaffe on Thursday bombed military targets in Leeds, Hull, towns in East England, and Folkestone.

R.A.F. PATHFINDERS Picked Crews Lead Attack

(British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, August 29.

The Bomber Command no-w has a number of crews known as pathfinders who have been trained and equipped to begin an attack exactly in the right place. They are all picked men who have volunteered for the task of going in advance of the main force and finding and indicating the objective. Their navigation must be scrupulously accurate and their aim unerring. Pathfinders led the attack on Kassel on Thursday night and also led the way to Nuremberg last night.

AIR CREW RESCUED AFTER SIX DAYS IN DINGHY (British Official Wireless.)

RUGBY, August 29.

After six days in a dinghy in the Bay of Biscay the crew of a Wellington bomber which crashed in the sea there have been- rescued. The day after they came down they were, spotted by other British planes, which dropped supplies and another dinghy, which drifted away. An Australian Sunderland set out to pick them up, but was wrecked in a heavy sea, only one of the crew managing to reach the spare dighy which had been dropped by the other British planes.

On the succeeding days the airmen saw many planes, both British and German. On the fifth day Beaufighters found the dinghies. They told the Wellington crew that the Sunderland survivor was about half a mile away and the Wellington crew paddled over to him. In a little while naval launches came in sight and the airmen were soon on board one of them. Just then a German launch was seen coming up and immediately two FockeWulf fighters attacked their own launch. The Beaufighters, however, kept off the attackers from the British launches. NAZI RAID INSTRUCTIONS (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, August 28. It is reported from Berlin that new instructions, in view of the increasing severity of R.A.F. raids, say that fire and life assurance policies, proofs of Aryan origin, ration cards, jewels, and lists of possessions must oe taken to shelters in raids.