AIRMEN'S EXPLOIT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 120, 19 April 1940, Page 7

AIRMEN'S EXPLOIT.

TALE OF DARING. FIREWORKS AT STAVANGER. (From Daventrv.) Warplanes of the Royal Air Force have in the past two days amassed a series of exploits to their credit. One German transport has been sunk off Bergen, .two submarines have boon hit, one Heinkel aircraft and one Dornier have been brought down, two Heinkels and one Dornier have been damaged, and two more raids have been made on Stavanger air port, making nine so far. Two German fighters which attacked a Royal Air Force patrol were shot down, while the submarine was. attacked along the Norwegian coast last night during an R.A.F. flight. A pilot of one of the machines which attacked German cruisers in Bergen said tho ’planes took off in fair weather and arrived in perfect conditions. One cruiser was discovered so close to the shore that it could not he attacked for fear of damaging merchant: ships in the vicinity. The other cruiser was speeding inshore, but the machines came down low and got a pretty hot reception from anti-aircraft fire. However, a bomb struck her on the stern and it is believed another squadron also scored a hit, which might account for the lact that she had not been heard of since. ATTACK ON STAVANGER. <' “The next evening,” added the pilot, “we called on Stavanger aerodrome.” There were no clouds to cover their anproach, so the attack, made in three sections, was not taken at a great height. “The Germans put up a terrific barrage, hut we went right into tho at tack at l(X)0ft at a speed of 200 m.p.li. with both the front and rear gunners opening up. With the Germans’ tracer bullets coming up and ours going down,, it looked like a gigantic fireworks display. Unfortunately, we lostone machine and two were damaged. The hydraulic landing gear of one was shot away, but the pilot -landed the ’plane safely, as he deserved to do.”