AGAIN DRIVEN OFF

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20116, 9 December 1939, Page 5

AGAIN DRIVEN OFF

| NAZI AIR RAIDERS j PLANES OVER BRITAIN ! GERMAN CLAIM DENIED IFIVE HEINKELS HIT FEAT OF AUSTRALIAN (E!ec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (British Official Wireless.) Reed. noon. RUGBY, Dec. 8. The Air Ministry has issued the following announcement: “Enemy aircraft were reported off the east coast during the night. Our fighter aircraft were sent up to intercept them. One enemy aircraft approached the Thames estuary and was driven off by anti-aircraft fire. “There is no truth in German statements that one of their reconnaissance aircraft reached London yesterday." It is now stated that nine Heinkel planes were engaged in the Scottish engagement yesterday. Five were seen to be hit. German planes attacked two British trawlers which reached port. Members of the crew said that the Nazi planes dived from a cloudbank and machine-gunned the trawlers, but the bullets failed to hit the ships. Almost at Sea Level Further details of yesterday’s air engagement over the east coast of Scotland show that two German Heinkels were first observed flying almost at sea level below a British fighter patrol. The fighters dived ’and gave the enemy several bursts of fire, chasing them eastward. . There was no reply to the British fire. Soon afterwards, seven Heinkels were seen and attacked as they were flying south down the coast in close formation. The British fighter patrol drove the Heinkels down to sea level and one pilot carried out a running attack 15ft above the water. The second pilot hit one of the enemy aircraft and then attacked a second, which returned the fire. This raider also appeared to be hit. A third British pilot tackled two Heinkels, registering hits on one of them as they skimmed to 100 ft. over the sea. Narrow Escape A fourth fighter pilot had a narrow escape. He had seen his bullets hit the Heinkel when he himself was hit by cross fire from another aircraft. One bullet pierced his earphones and wounded him in the ear. A second hit him in the left thigh and a third pierced the petrol tank. Although dizzy from loss of blood he managed to return safely. The Heinkels, speeding south, encountered a patrol of three British fighters five minutes later. Two of the British fighters hit two of the Heinkels. The Heinkels, five of them holed by bullets, disappeared into the mist on their long and difficult journey home. The British pilot who was wounded was born in Sydney, New South Wales, and learned his flying in Australia. He led his first attack in an action fought some weeks ago over the North Sea as a result of which seven out of 12 enemy planes failed to reach home. His section was officially accredited with the first of these to be brought down. WAR COSTS COMPULSORY SAVINGS ANSWER TO CRITICISM (LONDON, Nov. 28. Mr. J. M. Keynes, the economist, in an article in The Times, answers criticisms of his plan for meeting war costs through compulsory savings, and deplores the response. Mr. Keynes points out, in the first place, that there is a general admission of the urgency of the problem; secondly, that no complaint has been made that the idea is impracticable; thirdly, that there has been no suggestion of an alternative solution. “Academically, I am well content with the reception of the plan, but as a citizen, I am concerned for the country’s welfare. 1 am uncomfortable. The country is not yet taking the financial problem seriously. “The public cannot be expected to relish the prospect of taking up a heavy and calculable burden to avoid an incalculable evil which has not yet arrived. Politicians cannot be expected to take an undemocratic course, anticipating the popular voice.”' Mr. Keynes declares that inflation is the only obvious alternative. “The adoption of the plan would require the approval of the Labour Party,” he says, “but Labour people will never be required to approve. of inflation —it will just happen.” Mr. contends that the working and middle classes would be the greatest beneficiaries under bis scheme.