AIR COMBATS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 October 1939, Page 6

AIR COMBATS

SEEN OVER BRITISH COAST ENEMY RAIDERS CHASED BACK TO SEA. SOME CONFUSION OVER WARNINGS. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received This Day, 11.20 a.m.) LONDON, October 30. A German plane flying westwards was seen, in Haddingtonshire. Three Royal Air Force fighters forced the raider to turn back to Ihe North Sea. A plane appeared over the East Lothian Coast, apparently seeking the Firth of Forth. Flying low, at a terrific pace, it proceeded inland, where Royal Air Force planes chased it to the sea. Townspeople watched the encounter from their doorways. The authorities are investigating why and where sirens were sounded in London. A false alarm in Westminster was heard for miles and the staffs of all Government Departments proceeded to shelters. The Acting-Provost of East Lothian is protesting against the failure to sound the sirens when a bomber was engaged and brought down on October 28. FALSE ALARM SOUNDED IN CENTRAL LONDON. FIGHT OVER BERWICKSHIRE TOWN. (Received This Day, 12.10 p.m.) LONDON, October 30. It is officially stated that the sounding of air raid sirens in Central London was the result of a police misinterpretation of a message and that the all clear was given within a few minutes. The air duel on the Scottish coast reported earlier was fought over the housetops of a Berwickshire town, while hundreds of people, whose first intimation of the raider's approach was the roar of its engines, rushed from their homes to watch. Air raid precaution workers had been cautioned and were standing by, but the excited spectators disdained to take cover and watched the raider streak across the town into a burst of machine-gun fire from a British plane, which was promptly returned. The British plane swerved into the German wake and dashed in pursuit, flames spurting from the chaser’s guns. As the planes passed from sight over the seafront, the raider fled to sea, belching smoke and barely avoiding a cliff edge.