BRITISH FIGHTERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 121, 24 May 1941, Page 10

BRITISH FIGHTERS

GREAT FIRE POWER

DESCRIPTIONS OF RESULTS

PILOTS ASTONISHED

(Rec. 10.30 a.m.) RUGBY, May 23. The tremendous power of the British fighter aeroplanes' guns is described from pilots' reports by the Air Ministry news service. Years of experimenting, months of training, perhaps weeks of waiting have been spent in preparation for the moment when a pilot presses the button on the control column which fires the multiple guns or cannon mounted in his aircraft. Often when it comes even the pilot himself is astonished at the results which follow.

Here are a few of the things that did happen when a pilot pressed his button. The descriptions are from the reports of combats which took place in the last two or three weeks: —

"I was dazzled by the effects of my fire. My spinner, leading edges, fuselage, and windscreen were soused with oil, great pieces of a blazing He 111 filled the air and it dived vertically through the cloud."

"The starboard wing broke of! near the engine and blew back, narrowly missing my aircraft. I followed what was left of the enemy till he crashed into the sea."

•'He dived down in a shower of sparks which turned into a streak of flame."

"The enemy immediately caught fire and a piece of the plane flew ofT and hit us. The enemy aircraft flew straight into the ground."—B.O.W.