FIGHTING RETREAT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 June 1940, Page 6

FIGHTING RETREAT

UNDER CONTINUOUS HAIL OF BOMBS

BISLEY SHOT BRINGS DOWN ENEMY PLANE.

WITH CAPTURED MACHINE-GUN

(British Official Wireless.)

(Received This Day, 11.30 a.m.) RUGBY, May 31

The following story is related by an eye-witness returned from France: — “On May 11, the second day of the invasion of Belgium we continued our retreat with the remnants of a Belgian division which had had very heavy fighting on the previous day. We had been bombarded and machine-gunned from the air continuously from dawn as many as thirty or forty planes being over us at a time. In the evening, we were being bombed by sixteen Dorn--iers, when, suddenly four Spitfires appeared. They engaged the enemy and within six minutes brought down four Dorniers. The others were broken and dispersed. One of the Dorniers fell within a few yards of our column. The pilot and crew were burnt before we could reach them. One of the machineguns was intact. My sergeant dismoun-

ted it and took about 700 ‘rounds of ammunition in drums from the plane. “We continued our journey andi eventually camped for the night in a wood, where one of our fitters mounted the German machine-gun on a sidecar. Two days afterwards we were bombed at dawn by a Heinkel. We had with us a trooper who was a Bisley shot. Using the German machinegun, he brought the Heinkel down. When we went over to the wrecked plane, which had fallen about a mile off, we got another machine-gun from it, and rounds of ammunition which could be used, we hoped, in a subse-

quent encounter. “When we were about to embark, the enemy had been bombing the quayside, trying to get our small boat, all day. Just at dusk, the last German plane brought down one of our fighters. The British pilot parachuted and was actually in the air, coming down, when a German plane circled down low over the sheds where 'we were sheltering. We got in a burst of machine-gun fire and brought him down, as well as the German plane, which crashed, the pilot in a parachute coming down at about the same lime. We sent out a motor-cycle to pick up the British pilot, whom we took on board and brought back to England that night.”

HOST OF SPIES

ATTEMPT TO MISLEAD TROOPS.

PROMPT NEWS FOR ENEMY.

(Received This Day, 11.30 a.m.) LONDON. May 31

A spokesman stated that fifth columnists were very active throughout the evacuation and embarkation of the British Expeditionary Force. Spies were everywhere If headquarters occupied a house, it would be bombed within a few hours. A man in British uniform speaking perfect English, instructed an officer to move his men two miles along a beach. The officer later remarked to a naval observer: “It seems foolish to embark us there.”

The naval officer replied: “We have no intention of so doing.”

An hour later, the place to which the men would have been moved was “bombed to blazes.” AWARD TO FRENCH ADMIRAL AWARD TO FRENCH ADMIRAL (Received This Day, 11.45 a.m.) PARIS, May 31. The Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour has been awarded to Admiral Abrial, commander of the French naval forces assisting in the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Forces

RED CROSS LOSSES

TRANSPORT AND EQUIPMENT

(Received This Day, 11.45 a.m.) LONDON, May 31. Events in North France have result ed in the lost of at least £40,000 worth of Red Cross stores and equipment. One depot lost 24 ambulances, several transport trucks and staff ears.