SKILL AND COURAGE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 December 1939, Page 7

SKILL AND COURAGE

EXPLOITS OF FRENCH AIRMEN. Daring exploits of French airmen who have established their superiority over the enemy, both above the Siegfried Line and further afield, are now coming through from the front, writes the Paris correspondent of the Daily Telegraph. London. Some thrilling examples of skill and courage are reported. The case is cited of a very young pilot of a pursuit plane who was flying solo at a great height above the Siegfried Line when he sighted three German Messerschmitts quietly returning to their base at Saarbrueken. He manoeuvred to place himself behind and above them and when they were throttling down to land he swooped upon them and let loose a burst of machine-gun fire from a height of little more than 150 feet. He hit one of the three German planes, which crashed in flames. The other two opened full out to climb, but before they could do so the young French pilot shot down a second and then the third. In little more than one minute the three Messerschmitts lay smashed on Saarbrueken aerodrome. In another case a French sergeant pilot engaged a German in single combat. The Frenchman's machine was riddled by machine-gun bullets and he seemed hopelessly lost. He could have jumped with his parachute, but ho gripped his controls and recovered control at 300 feet from the ground. The German opponent. cruising above, was waiting to see him crash, but the -Frenchman climbed behind and shot him down from below, A third story is that of lhe heroism of two French airmen who had taken valuable photographs of the Siegfried Line. When their machine made a forced landing within the French lines it was clear that they had completed their mission only in time. The aeroplane was riddled with bullets and the wing almost torn oil. French troops who rushed to the scene found both its occupants dead. Clutched in the observer's hand was a movie camera iiltact. It is believed that this man. finding the pilot had been shot, was able to save the machine from a crash and to guide it down within the French lines as he died. Many other French airmen have escaped from superior numbers of enemy 'planes after firing their last shot.