AIR BATTLES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 April 1940, Page 5

AIR BATTLES

BRITISH FLYING=BOAT FIGHTS BOMBERS ONE DESTROYED AND ANOTHER DISABLED. FOUR OTHERS PUT TO FLIGHT. A British flying-boat engaged six German bombers in a spectacular battle over the North Sea, near the Norwegian coast, as the result of which one bomber was destroyed and another disabled, Daventry reports. The flying-boat was the 25-ton Cumberland. The German formation attempted to attack a convoy and the Cumberland was forced to drop to within 100 feet of the sea to avoid attack from below. The Cumberland's tail gunner held his tire until he was 100 yards from a German machine, when he Jet go with all four guns. The bomber crashed into the sea. A second plane had one engine riddled with bullets. The remaining four bombers escaped, after trying to bomb the flying-boat. The Cumberland landed at her base with some controls shot away and the captain and second pilot slightly wounded. A German bomber landed in Norway in a damaged condition shortly afterwards and is believed to have been the one damaged in this engagement. OFFICIAL REPORT (Received This Day, 9.50 a.m.) LONDON. April 4. The Air Ministry has announced that a Coastal Command flying boat encountered six planes of the Junker type over the North Sea yesterday afternoon and shot down one, which was seen to fall into the sea. The others broke off the engagement. It is learned that the British plane was a Sunderland flying boat, which returned with some of its controls shot away. Two officers were injured.

£RASH IN KATTEGAT END OF ENEMY BOMBER. JUNKER ALSO DESTROYED. COPENHAGEN, April 4. A German bomber crashed in the Kattegat. The crew of four reached the Island of Samso in a rubber boat and were interned. A few hours later a Junker asked a Norwegian aerial patrol for permission to land because of engine trouble and came down in Stavanger. The crew set fire to the machine, after which they were interned.

It was recently reported that Germany was instituting aerial patrols to protect the sea routes to Scandinavia.

THRILLING COMBAT SPITFIRE AND HEINKEL. FISHING-BOAT GIVES FINAL TOUCH. LONDON, April 4. The Spitfire plane which was forced down in the sea in flames after shooting down the Heinkel yesterday, was the first R.A.F. Coastal Command plane lost since the outbreak of the war, and it was the only loss suffered during the German raids today on the British coast and convoys. The pilot of the Spitfire and the crew of the Heinkel were rescued and brought ashore after a thrilling combat 12 miles off the Yorkshire coast. The Heinkel’s crew were picked up by a fishing boat, whose skipper said: “When the Heinkel came overhead during the combat my brother Tom let go with a Lewis gun. The plane came down in the sea a quarter of a mile away. One of the crew, who spoke English, said that the Spitlire partly disabled one of the Heinkel’s engines, and our shots did the rest.” Unconfirmed reports reached London yesterday evening stating that it is believed the first naval aircraft to fall a victim of an armed fishing trawler was brought down off the Yorkshire coast during the day (says a British Official Wireless message). The reports state that the German crew of five - were rescued by the_ vessel and landed last evening. According to these reports, the crew of a drifter thought the German aircraft was going to bomb them while they wel-e fishing, and they immediately opened fire with their Lewis gun. The plane lurched and fell into the sea. The drifter drew alongside, knocking the wing off the wrecked machine, and a member of the crew covered the five Germans with a rifle. Later the plane sank. It is believed the plane may have been damaged prior to the encounter with the drifter by R.A.F. fighter aircraft and was trying to limp home.