AT TERRIBLE ODDS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 May 1940, Page 5

AT TERRIBLE ODDS

HEROISM OF BRITISH AIRMEN IN NORWAY BATTLE OVER FROZEN LAKE. NUMBER OF ENEMY MACHINES DESTROYED. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.37 a.m.) RUGBY, May 9. In the air battle above the frozen lake which was used as an aerodrome by the British forces in Norway, one British pilot, with no ammunition and practically no petrol, was attacked by three of the most modern and heavily armed German, fighters. He saved his aircraft from being shot down by repeatedly attempting to collide, until the enemy swerved away. Their cannon fire struck the aircraft again and again. The pilot successfully made a forced landing .His plane was set on fire as he left it. Altogether, on this day, forty sorties were carried out and 37 enemy aircraft were engaged. The landing ground was bombed and machine-gunned by between eighty and ninety German bombers, and 132 craters were counted. By the end of the day, only five of the eighteen Gladiator planes were serviceable, but six enemy aircraft for certain and probably eight more, were brought down on the surrounding mountains.

At the end of the next day, the remaining R.A.F. aircraft, having carried on an unequal combat with considerable success, only one aircraft was serviceable. Owing to the evacuation of Southern Norway it was not possible to repair these damaged aircraft. When the pilots re-embarked, their ship was bombed for six hours without interruption, but all the attacks failed.