GALLANT FEAT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 February 1940, Page 6

GALLANT FEAT

BRITISH BOMBER FIGHTS AT HEAVY ODDS ATTACKED BY FIVE ENEMY PLANES. SAFE RETURN TO BASE. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day. 10.40 a.m.) RUGBY. February 25. Returning from reconnaissance flights yesterday over Heligoland and the German Frisian Islands, an aircraft of the Bomber Command was intercepted and attacked by five enemy fighters. Despite the superior speed of its opponents, and the fact that one of its guns was virtually out of action during the engagement, the British aircraft was able to evade its attackers and returned safely to its base with valuable photographs previously obtained over enemy territory. During the course of the action the bomber was hit six limos by machinegun fire, but the crew escaped injury. The bomber, a Bristol Blenheim, first sighted the enemy while flying in a patch of clear sky al 2,000 feet. Five fighters of the Messerschmitt 109 type were flying in V formation, and the Blenheim pilot at once dived towards sea level in order to restrict the manoeuvrability of the fighters and to protect himself from attack from below. While he was descending, the first Messerschmitt launched its attack from above and on the port quarter, being quickly followed by the remaining four fighters, three of which attacked from the port quarter and one from astern. Pressing their attack home, the fighters then broke away, and. gaining height, delivered simultaneously attacks on both sides of the bomber. At first the Blenheim pilot evaded the attack by making a series of left and right-hand turns and bringing his aircraft head-on towards the enemy's machine-gun fire as each attacked. Then, three minutes after the action had started, the Blenheim came underneath a„ cloud bank and the pilot decided to try to gain its cover. As he made for the clouds 3.000 feet above him. in a series of steep, right-hand climbing turns, one of the enemy fighters repeatedly attacked him from the beam, while another harassed him from below. Still turning towards the fighters at each attacks, the bomber pilot continued to climb between each attack and finally entered the cloud bank, where the fighters at once lost contact and were forced to abandon the chase.