MADE BY R.A.F. OVER ENEMY TERRITORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 January 1940, Page 5

MADE BY R.A.F. OVER ENEMY TERRITORIES

Greatest Survey Flight of the War ALL AIRCRAFT RETURN SAFELY TO BASES CONTRAST WITH POOR NAZI EFFORT (By Telegraph.—Press Association.—Copyright.) LONDON. January 13. An Air Ministry announcement slates: “The Koval Air Force lasi night carried out an extensive reconnaissance in Austria, Bohemia, and north-west and eastern Germany, while I lie security patrols continued over Heligoland Bight. All qur airiTal't returned safely to their bases. It was- the greatest survey flight of the war.” The Air Ministry did not reveal the point from which the Hight was made, but the minimum estimate is I hat the machines covered at least 1000 miles and were obliged to liy at tremendous heights and endure extreme cold over snow-bound Central lb i rope. It Was later ‘reported that the machines began from France, and that they dropped leaflets over Vienna and Prague. The flight is comparable with a •transatlantic flight from Newfoundland, with the additional strain of running the gauntlet of the Nazis’ defences. Two units participated. The achievement contrasts vividly with the Nazis’ claim, of reconnaissance Hights over Britain, which were merely a shallow penetration of coastal areas.