NORTH SEA CONVOYS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 October 1939, Page 5

NORTH SEA CONVOYS

ABORTIVE ATTACKS BY GERMAN PLANES No Damage Done to Ships AT LEAST THREE ENEMY MACHINES BROUGHT DOWN PURSUIT BY BRITISH FIGHTERS , LONDON, October 21. An Air Ministry bulletin states that a North Sea convoy sighted enemy aircraft this morning. British fighter aircraft, respinding to the signal, were dispatched to the scene. Ihe enemy made off. Enemy aircraft attacked a convoy m the afternoon. J-fte escort vessels opened fire and British fighters inflicted casualties on the enemy. ' . . , •. .. , The Admiralty and the Air Ministry later announced that 12 enemy aircraft took part in the attack on the convoy. They were engaged by fighters and escort vessels and at least three enemy aeroplanes were broug’ht down. A fourth enemy machine was forced on to the sea after intensive fire. Our aircraft sustained no casualties. No ship of the convoy or escort was damaged.

ENEMY EFFORTS

POOR RESULTS AGAINST HEAVY LOSSES OF U-BOATS AND AIRCRAFT. FACTS OF RECENT RAIDS. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY. October 21. Recent German air attacks on the British Fleet and naval bases are interpreted by many shrewd obvers as an indication that the results of the U-boat campaign are now recognised as disappointing in Berlin. By the new effort it was no doubt hoped to reduce the margin of British superiority in warships with a view to breaking the stranglehold of the British Navy in shutting off Germany's overseas supplies. Only the Baltic remains open to German shipping. Judging by the outcome of the first raids—-the small amount of damage done and the heavy casualties suf-

fered by the raiders —it is likely that the hopes the Nazi leaders may have entertained of success for this method are going to be as greatly disappointed as those formerly held out to the German public in respect of U-boat attacks. It is clear that the accuracy of bombing upon ' which the German air force may have counted is unobtainable under the conditions of antiaircraft gunfii’e which the German pilots have met. Furthermore, the German command may have underestimated the quality of the British interceptors. It is interesting to note that the British pilots who shot down three of the four German aircraft destroyed in the raid on the Firth of Forth belonged to the auxiliary air force and till three weeks ago were stockbrokers, lawyers and sheep-farmers. No single British plane was lost and actually only one hit. which did no damage, was obtained by the German gunners in all the aerial combats over the Forth. It is pointed out that the loss of 30 per cent of the attackers by the Germans in recent raids, like the loss of a third of their-submarines, is too heavy a wastage to be borne for long, nor are the results achieved in either form of attack commensurate.