RAIDERS FOILED

Taranaki Daily News, 20 September 1940, Page 7

RAIDERS FOILED

Iday attacks failure FEW NAZIS REACH GOAL* STOUT LONDON DEFENCE Hec. 8.5 p.m. London, Sept. 19. Enemy raids yesterday were directed mainly against London without success. The metropolis had seven alarms during the day, but few German planes reached their goal. The enemy lost 48 planes, while 12 British fighters are missing. The pilots of nine, however, are safe, it is announced to-day. A joint Air Ministry and Home Security communique stated: "Enemy air activity to-day has been mainly confined ! to the south-eastern area. Formations of [enemy aircraft crossed the coast of Kent on several occasions during the day and J spread injand towards London and the Thames estuary. A few of them reached London but no bombs are reported to have been dropped in this area. A number of bombs were dropped mainly ncar i the Thames estuary, but damage appears to have been caused mainly to dwellinghouses and the number of casualties reported is small, though it includes some fatally injured. I "The> enemy has been continuously eni gaged by our fighters and anti-aircraft guns throughout the day. One of 46 enemy aircraft destroyed was brought down by anti-aircraft guns." Five Separate Waves. A description of day attacks on the sout.h-east of England was given late at ! night by the Air Ministry news servlce. Five separate waves of bombers and fighters were sent over at intervals between 9.30 a.m. and 8 p.m. with the apparent object of wearing down the R.A.F. fighter defence. The assaults were strenuous but the results were disappointing to the enemy, who lost 46 aircraft as ascertained up to 10 p.m. Fortyfive were shot down by R.A.F. fighters and one by anti-aircraft fire. Each wave followed roughly the same course, closing on the Kent coast between Dungeness and the North Foreland, and each was met by Hurricanes and Spitfires. One raid of 15 bombers surrounded, as one R.A.F. pilot said, by a sphere of Messerschmitt 109 fighters, was I dispersed so quickly when Spitfires met them near the Kentish coast that only three British pilots got a chance to fire. | Head-on Attack. j A Hurricane patrol met a formation of enemy bombers heavily protected by I MesserschmittS stepped up in tiers above | them. Near the Isle of Sheppey on 'the way up the Thames Estuary the Hurri- . canes made a head-on attack qn the bombers. "They jettisoned their bombs even before we attacked," one of the Hurricane pilots said, "and went stralght out over Folkestone." The third and fourth attacks came ln quick succession. Soon after 4 p.m. another hundred of the enemy came ln over Kent. again making for the Thames estuary, and before this another 250 bombers and fighters were already on their way, one formation of 100 coming in by Dungeness. It was in these two attacks that the enemy took the roughest handling from the British fighters. A squadron of Spitfires over Kent shot down five bombers and one flghter-bomber, as well as sharing in the destruction of another Heinkel. Belter was to comc. A single squadron of Hurricanes near the Thames estuary shot down eight Dorniers and three Junkers, as well as sharing in the destruction of three more. In the same fight two. other Hurricane patrols accounted for nine more bombers alone. The seventh air raid warning at London to-day at 8.58 p.m. was the 100th since the outbreak of the war. Three hundred raiders crossed the south-east coast in an endless stream for 15 minutes during the afternoon. Eight fighters escorted each bomber.