ABOVE AND BELOW

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 223, 17 June 1944, Page 7

ABOVE AND BELOW

Pilot’s Impressions In Normandy (By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright) (Special Correspondent.) (Received, June 16, 7.5 p.m.) LONDON/ June 16. “During the day it was almost like flying over a quiet English countryside,” said Wing Commander John Checkets, D. 5.0., D.F.C., Invercargill, after returning from patrol over (Normandy yesterday afternoon. “Sometimes you can see a belch of •flame coming from one clump of trees, and an answering flash from another clump, and you know there is a tank battle in progress. At night, you can see gun-flashes stabbing the darkness. “Here and there, of course, there are towns on fire. Caen, for instance, is just a mass of flames and St. Lp is a heap of rubble and) on fire. It is as flat as a bun.” Checkets, who is a former commanding officer of the New Zealand Spitfire Squadron. is now leading a wing comprising English, Canadian and Polish squadrons. He was shot down over France last year, but returned to England safely. He has landed three times on landing strips in Normandy since the invasion. “It is a different matter when you are on the ground,” he said. “The first timeI landed and cut off the motor, I heard a sound like an express train. It was the naval shelling going on overhead in the direction of Caen. “The landing strip is in a cornfield in which a track has been cleared by bulldozers. There were snipers in a wood 100 yards away, and I could hear our chaps exchanging shots with them. Many dead, both Allied and German, are still unburied, and you can hear the banging of guns and rifles all the time. The beaches are a hotchpotch of men and material being landed.” The role of Checkets’s wing is to patrol on the look-out for enemy aircraft, but few have been sighted. The squadrons fly sometimes at night, and' it was on a night patrol that (Flight Lieutenant R. M. Mathieson, Waipukurau, who is in an English squadron, shot down a Junkers 88 south of St. Mere Eglise. Mathieson, who flew during the Dieppe raid, has also shared the destruction of a Messerschmitt 109 and a Focke-Wulf 190. His total score is now two. In the same squadron are Flight Lieutenant D. G. E. Brown, Auckland, and Flying Officer G. Stone,-. Wellington, ■ Checkets has seen only one German-, aircraft since D-day. It was the firsW he had encountered since he was snot, down. He hit it three times in a dog-, fight which took place at tree-top height, then ran out of ammunition and had to return, but the German was damaged and leaking glycol. . GERMAN REPORT Possible Landings Near Calais LONDON, June 15. The Stockholm “Aftonbladet,” quoting dispatches from Berlin, said that new Allied landings in the Calais and Ostend areas are expected at any moment. Paris radio reports that Allied paratroops were landed today in the Brest region. It adds that a, number were taken prisoner. ‘ , ' Today’s German High Command communique states: “The battle of mandy is daily mounting in violence. The Allies are seeking to enlarge the beachhead in all directions, and the battle is rising to a climax amid salvoes from very heavy naval guns and continuous air attacks.* Newly arrived infantry and tank forces have been thrown m. Fierce fighting developed yesterday, particularly round Tilly and Caumont and southwest of Balleroy. The Germans maintained their positions everywhere, me enemy achieved a slight gain in ground north-west of St. Mere Eglise. The German news agency says air reconnaissance has shown British tank reserves in the rear of the British lines in the Caumont arsa, indicating that the attacks will continue. The German High Command claims that the Luftwaffe, the German navy and coastal batteries since the invasion began have sunk two Allied cruisers, nine destroyers, two motor toniedo-boats, and 23 freighters, totalling 131,400 tons, and 12 tank landing-craft totalling 18,300 tons. In addition, they claim that the Germans, in torpedo, bomb and artillery attacks, have damaged two heavy destroyers, three cruisers, 16 destroyers, eight motor torpedo-boats, and 08 merchantmen and transports, totalling 235,000 tons, and- two landing vessels totalling 4000 tons. weatheiTunsettled (Received June 16, 7 p.m.) LONDON, June lt>._ After a sunny period the weather in the Straits of Dover late this afternoon became less settled. The sky clouded, and before nightfall a chilly south-westerly wind came up. The sea was choppy bur the visibility was good.