TALE UNCONFIRMED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 December 1938, Page 7

TALE UNCONFIRMED

ALLEGED SHOOTING DOWN OF BOMBERS IN VICINITY OF HANKOW. REPORT DISCREDITED. By Telegraph— Association—Copyright. (Received This Day, 9.45 a.m.) LONDON, December 13. No confirmation has been received by the British, French, American, Chinese and Japanese Governments of an American report that French and American warships shot down three Japanese bombers in the vicinity of Hankow. An officer of the American gunboat Luzon, on arrival at Shanghai, informed Reuters that they did not encounter any military or navigational hazards. An earlier message from Shanghai, read: —It is reliably reported that the American gunbot Luzon, steaming off Hankow recently, shot down a Japanese bomber which was flying over her menacingly despite repeated warnings to keep off. At the same time an unnamed French gunboat which was nearby also opened fire and brought down two other low-flying Japanese machines. Rear-Admiral le Breton, aboard the Luzon, who secured photographic records of the incidents is reported to have declared as the plane approached, “They aren’t going to make another Paenay oiit of us,” and immediately