AIR AGGRESSION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 March 1940, Page 5

AIR AGGRESSION

TWO BELGIAN PLANES SHOT DOWN

BY INTRUDING NAZI MACHINE VIGOROUS PROTEST MADE. AGAINST GRAVE VIOLATION OF NEUTRALITY. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. BRUSSELS. March 2. A German plane shot down Iwo Belgian army planes near lhe Belyinni-Liixeni-honrg border. M. Spank. Horeign Minister, summoned the German .Ambassador and vigorously protested against a “grave violation ol' neutrality and act ol' .aggression by German airmen.’’

It is officially stated three Belgian monoplanes pursued and "straddled” eft Dornier 17 type, which is heavily armed. The German opened fire and one Belgian plane received a number of hits. Another had the controls severed. The leader of a patrol continued the pursuit but the Germans struck down the plane, killing the pilot. The second machine crashed but the pilot saved himself by means of a parachute.

Three other Belgian planes were involved in serious crashes, three men being killed. The Amsterdam official news agency reports that anti-aircraft gunners fired on a German aeroplane which crossed the centre of the Netherlands, a British plane passing Vlielane Island yesterday, a German plane crossing Groningen, and two other German machines over Moerdijk and Beverwijk today. The Hague is protesting to London and Berlin.

The shooting down of the two Bel l gian planes has caused bitter comment in the Belgian Press, says a radio report. The official communique says that while three Belgian monoplanes were patrolling over Luxemburg they encountered a big German bomber of the Dornier 17 type. The Belgians surrounded the bomber, which opened fire.

The Belgian Foreign Minister, M Spaak, had a talk with the German Ambassador, which was of short duration, and he made a vigorous protest. This is the first German flight over Belgian territory which has had such a tragic ending, though Nazi planes maintain continual flights over both Belgium and. Holland, and early in the war a Netherlands seaplane was lost by German action. One Belgian newspaper describes the incident as a particularly vile act. “Though in such circumstances it is more than ever necessary to maintain calm, only the term ‘assassination’ seems to fit such an act.”

ANTFAIRCRAFT GUNS IN ACTION IN BRUSSELS SUBURB. (Received This Day, 10.10 a.m.) BRUSSELS. March 3. . Anti-aircraft units went into action in a suburb of the city this morning.