PLANE’S EXPLOIT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21113, 5 June 1943, Page 3

PLANE’S EXPLOIT

THREE NAZIS DOWNED FIVE MORE DAMAGED BAY OF BISCAY BATTLE Ci) a LONDON, June 4. ' Attacked bv eight JUBBs in the Bay of Biscay, a Royal Australian Aiv Force Sunder]and scored hits on all eight enemy planes, shooting down three and probably a fourth. Ihe Sunderland was set on fire in this unprecedented encounter, but. with one member of the crow dead and four, including himself, injured, the Sunderland’s captain, Flight Lieutenant Colin Walker, of Brisbane, brought the plane back nearly 300 miles over the sea and landed in the west of England at midnight on Wednesday'. Three enemy planes attacked from either side of the Sunderland and two on the flying boat’s tail. Flight Lieutenant Walker said that the first shells from the port attacker set fire to the port outer engine. “We extinguished it,” he said, “but another shell broke the compass in. front, of me and set the alcohol ablaze. The alcohol ran over the bridge and set lire to my trousers. My first idiot’s clothing was also set on fire, b\it we quelled the flames with a fire extinguisher. • “The Junkers made about 20 separate attacks. Our mid-ship gunner shot down two of the attackers. The lighters’ shells seemed to be spattering all over the place and shrapnel wounded the navigator. The fighters’ lire damaged the rear-turret’s hydraulic system and peppered the rudder elevator. A shell hit the galley gunner, who died 20 minutes later. The tail-gunner, who recovered consciousness from a previous shock, in conjunction with the mid-ship gunners, bugged a third victim. The live remaining fighters continued to attack Ihe Sunderland ’« nose. The other Junkers were set on fire. We scored hits on all of them during the action.’’