ENEMY PLANES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 November 1939, Page 5

ENEMY PLANES

BROUGHT DOWN BY BRITISH FIGHTERS AND ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUNS. BOMBER DESTROYED NEAR ROUBAIX. <By Telegraph—Press Association., LONDON, November 3. Two British fighters brought down a German bomber near Roubaix. The pilot was killed and another officer was wounded. Two others were taken prisoner. Each fighter fired one burst and Forced the German bomber down. It crashed into a hedge and toppled over a bank into a brook. Allied anti-aircraft guns and a British pursuit plane shot down two out of three German planes attempting to reconnoitre the British lines. One plane flew back to German territory, trailing a column of smoke.

SPLENDID WORK ACTIVITIES OF THE ROYAL AIR FORCE. GERMAN TERRITORY WIDELY SURVEYED. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, November 2. Satisfaction is expressed in informal quarters regarding the activities of the Royal Air Force over Germany since the war began, and great importance is attached to the information obtained about the German airfields, guns, methods of camouflage, and other matters. During the first three weeks many flights were carried out over various parts of Germany, and nearlj’ 20.000,000 pamphlets were dropped. During these “pamphlet” raids only occasional resistance by German fighters was encountered. The purpose of these flights was not confined to dropping pamphlets. Reconnaissance of the enemy positions was constantly undertaken and valuable experience was gained of night-and-day flying conditions over enemy territory. More recently the flights have been of a purely reconnaissance nature and in 20 such flights during the last two months it has been possible to acquire a very complete picture of the whole Siegfried Line, of enemy air bases, and of other valuable military and strategical objectives in north-west Germany. Twice Royal Air Force planes have been over Berlin, and a number of other large German cities have been flown over. No bombs have been dropped during these flights. In encounters with enemy aircraft several have been shot down. The British aircraft losses, though no official total has been declared; are known to be small.

During September and October the German aeroplane losses were 22 accounted for by the Royal Air Force, eight by the Navy, and one by antiaircraft gunfire, and two by other causes. The last two refer to German bombers which recently crashed in Danish territory after an attack on a British cruiser squadron was repulsed. These figures may be on the conservative side, as account is taken only of cases where full and complete proof of destruction of German planes has been obtained. Other aircraft may well have been crippled after-encoun-tering British anti-aircraft or fighter gunfire and may have been forced to come down before reaching the German air bases.