BOMBER HITS BIRDS
LIKE MACHINE-GUN FIRE WEST FRONT, Dec. 8. A twin-engined British bomber landed at its aerodrome with every windowpane shattered, the wing covering ripped in a dozen places, and blood spattered over the engines and propellers. The pilot and gunner were not injured, as the plane slowed down there arose an odour strongly reminiscent of grilled chicken. The bomber had been (lying at an altitude of 1000 ft, when it struck a flock of hundreds of birds—the pilot thinks that they were plovers. The birds shot through every window, perforated the wings, and surrounded the plane in a blinding mist of feathers. “Excuse me, sir,” telephoned the gunner to the pilot, “there are birds in the gun pit.” There were also birds frying on the engines, plastered over the propellers, littered round the pilot’s cabin, and in the wings. As riddled, as if it had collected a burst of Messerchmidt machine-gun fire, the bomber struggled home.
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Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20129, 26 December 1939, Page 11
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158BOMBER HITS BIRDS Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20129, 26 December 1939, Page 11
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