GREAT AIR BATTLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 November 1939, Page 5

GREAT AIR BATTLE

FRENCH ROUT OF NAZI ATTACKERS SENSATIONAL & SIGNIFICANT EVENT. ENEMY OUTCLASSED. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY. November 7. Referring to the encounter between nine French fighting planes and 27 German machines, in which nine of the enemy planes were brought down without. French loss, the "Daily Mail” says that the greatest air battle since the war began ended in a rout of the Nazi attackers, who were outclassed and outmanoeuvred in the most violent air fighting yet seen. The Germans, one after another, crashed to the earth till the raiders wheeled and fled for home. Every French flyer "got his man.” The "Daily Herald" says that the French fighters used are four or five years old and considerably less efficient than the American types now available in quantity. They also are inferior in performance to the British fighters on the Western Front. A French semi-official commentary states that it is a sensational and most significant victory. The German Messerschmitts may perhaps be speedier in straight flying, but the French machines have the upper hand in aerobatics, which is a vital factor in fighters.

GERMAN REPORT

(Received This Day. 10.25 a.m.) LONDON. November 7. A German communique, issued in Berlin, reports no important actions. There was slight reconnaissance and artillery activity on both sides. A British aeroplane was brought down near Mainz and two French planes were shot down near Saarlautern, in air fighting.