RAIDS & AMBUSHES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 November 1939, Page 5

RAIDS & AMBUSHES

ACTIVITIES ON WESTERN FRONT GERMAN PLANES BROUGHT DOWN. FRENCH MACHINES RETUP,N SAFELY. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. PARIS. October 31. A communique states that there was marked activity between the Moselle and the Saar. including raids, ambushes. and patrols. During many flights on Monday the French brought down a German reconnaissance plane in their lines. Two enemy observation planes fell in the German lines on the Saar front. All the French planes returned to their bases. ROYAL AIR FORCE ATTACK ON ENEMY BOMBERS. ONE SHOT DOWN IN FRENCH TERRITORY. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, October 31. The Air Ministry announces: "Yesterday British fighters had their first opportunity to engage German bombers over French territory. Two enemy machines were observed flying high and were attacked by our fighters. "One of the raiders, a Dornier machine, was shot down. The other made off in the clouds."

Authoritative circles regard the Royal Air Force reconnaissance flight over Northern Germany yesterday as one of the most successful undertaken since the Air Force began to make trips over Germany.

GREAT BRITISH EFFORT

MEN AND MATERIAL POURING INTO FRANCE. (Received This Day, 10.35 a.m.) PARIS. November 1. The “Petit Parisien” says the British are becoming more and more numerous in France and their material more abundant. The British effort in transporting troops could only be described as fantastic.

BRITISH PLANES BUSY • SUCCESSFUL RECONNAISSANCE FLIGHTS. (Received This Day. 10.10 a.m.) LONDON. November 1. The Air Ministry announced that the Royal Air Force in the last twentyfour hours had made successful reconnaissance flights in North-Western Germany, taking photographs. All the planes returned.

BIG GUNS IN ACTION

• MIGHT HERALD OFFENSIVE. (Received This Day. 10.10 a.m.) PARIS. November 1. The heavy Siegfried Line guns roared into their most consistent action of the war and it is believed that this might herald -the start of a big-scale offensive. The French repelled a thousand Germans trying to surround a village on the northern sector of the West Front. “MORE POSITIVE INITIATIVE” GERMANY’S REPORTED INTENTION. (Received This Day, 10.35 a.m.) LONDON, November 1. The Associated Press of America learns from Berlin of an impression prevailing that Germany is ready for a more positive initiative. Informed circles in Berlin say that neithei Molotov’s speech nor the Italian Cabinet reshuffle harms the German cause. GERMAN CLAIM SIX PLANES SHOT DOWN. (Received This Day, 11.10 a.m.) LONDON, November 1. A German communique, issued in Berlin, asserts that six enemy planes, of which four were British, were shot down on the West Front and in the North Sea on Monday last.