AIR COMBATS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 June 1940, Page 5

AIR COMBATS

BRITISH PLANES TAKE TOLL OF MESSERSCHMITTS NEW AERODROME IN NORWAY DEVASTATED. FORTY FIRES COUNTED. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.7 a.m.) RUGBY, June 26. Details are now available of actions recorded by an Air Ministry communique. Nine Spitfires, patrolling Northern France, sighted seven Messerschmitt 119’s, flying at a height of more than two miles. As the enemy climbed and dogfights started, ten more Messerschmitt 119’s joined the battle, three being shot down. Three were seriously damaged and believed to have been destroyed and several others were hit.

In the case of the Bomoen aerodrome, near Bergen, and the construction of this landing ground, Coastal Command bombers waited until the work was almost finished before paying a visit in the small hours of today. Many bombs were dropped and explosives wrecked the runway with direct hits, while incendiary bombs set the barrack huts and nearby woods ablaze. The pilots counted forty fires on and around the aerodrome.

HEAVY ATTACKS

MADE ON.-ENEMY AERODROMES. FACTORIES AND RAILWAYS DAMAGED. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day. 10.45 a.m.) RUGBY, June 26. The Air Ministry announced that R.A.F. bombers last night continued their attacks on enemy aerodromes, rail communications and other military objectives in the Netherlands and north-west Germany. Heavy attacks were made on aerodromes at Arnhem and Borkum. A railway bridge at Lingen, near the Dutch frontier, was destroyed. Damage was done to the Hamm rail junction and to railway siding at Dorsten, north of the Ruhr, a large fire being started. The Osterfeld marshalling yard was bombed and the Monheim Oil Refinery severely damaged. Hits were registered on an aircraft factory at Bremen and an another at Cologne. A salvo of bombs caused an explosion in a chemical works and an ammunition dump at Heligoland was blown up. One of our bombers returning from this operation shot down an enemy fighter. All our aircraft returned safely. From a reconnaissance over Scandinavia. two Coastal Command aircraft failed to return.”