JUNKERS SHOT DOWN

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 197, 18 May 1944, Page 4

JUNKERS SHOT DOWN

New Zealand Pilots Of Fleet Air Arm Two New Zealand pilots of the Fleet Air Arm, who completed their training together and met again when they were appointed recently to the Hame squadron in the escort carrier 11.M.5. Biter, “celebrated” their reunion by shooting down a Junkers 290, states an Admiralty release. They are Lieutenant (A) Erik Sven Erik son R.N.Z.N.V.R., of Waiuku. and Lieutenant (A) William Clifford Dimes, of Wellington, who went to England together in 1941 to join the Fleet Air Arm. It was while H.M.S. Biter was escorting a large convoy in the Atlantic that the Junkers 290 reconnaissance bomber was sighted. The aircraft launched t< glider bomb which fell into the sea near the convoy. The Junkers then continued to shadow the convoy. Despite, a heavy sea which sometimes made the flight deck of the escort carrier rise and fall ns much as 30 feet. Lieutenants Erikson and Dimes took off in their Wildcat aircraft- . _ . . tt, Describing the action. Lieutenant Erikson said: “We both saw the enemy soon after taking off, but he made for cloud and we lost him for a time. Ten minutes later he broke cover about five, miles away, and this time we gave our aircraft all they had to intercept before he reached the shelter of some rain clouds ahead of him. By the time we were in a position to open fire, we had reached the fringe of the cloud and rain had reduced visibility to about half a mile. I got in a burst at 400 yards range. Almost at the same time I saw the enemy’s tracers flashing over my port wing. “I saw his port outer engine catch fire and as I pulled away Lieutenant Dimes attacked from the starboard quarter. This diversion must have caught the German air gunners off their mark, for no further retaliation was made and the Junkers was lost in the cloud. When he emerged a few seconds later his engine was stopped and on fire, and he appeared to be losing height. I was able to fire another short burst at point-blank range, before his wing collapsed and he dived into the sea.”