AIR FIGHTING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 December 1939, Page 5

AIR FIGHTING

DESTRUCTION OF ENEMY MACHINE SEVEN OTHERS PUT TO FLIGHT. [ BY UNITS OF COASTAL COMMAND. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.35 a.m.) RUGBY, December 1. In connection with the engagement, reported on November 13, in which patrols of the Coastal Command of the Royal Air Force, encountered eight German Dornier bombers and one of the enemy machines was shot down, the others retiring, it is now learnt in London that the engagement, which resulted in the destruction of one Dornier, lasted for thirteen minutes, and that three othei’ aircraft of the Coastal Command were in separate combats with the remaining seven Dorniers and in every instance the enemy was driven off. When the pilot of a northern coastal aircraft intercepted two Dorniers flying together, he selected one as his immediate objective and carried out four dive attacks. The enemy's rear gunner was hit and was seen to be dragged from the cockpit by another member of the crew, who took his place. The enemy pilot, however, made off into the clouds. The British machine then turned to deal with the other German, who followed his companion after receiving a few well-aimed bursts. An hour later, another British aircraft of the same squadron also sighted a Dornier. It too disappeared in a cloud bank when a number of rounds were fired at it. The final engagement was between a British flying-boat and a Dornier. The British aircraft twice encountered the Dornier and on each occasion the Dornier was driven off by gunfire.