FLASH & BURST
END OF ENEMY BOMBER DURING NIGHT RAID ON ENGLAND EXPLOITS OF BRITISH AIRMEN. REMARKABLE ENDURANCE & SKILL. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11.45 a.m.) RUGBY, June 27. “There was a sudden /flash in front of me, and I saw pieces of metal falling through the sky’’ is how a fighter pilot describes the end of a Junkers 88, ione of three bombers destroyed in the course of last night’s raid on this country. This machine exploded in mid-air, after being attacked over the East Coast. It had been caught by searchlights when a Spitfire chased to the attack. The pilot gave it two short bursts at close range. The bullets must have struck a bomb in the storage chamber, for their was a blinding flash and the machine began to disintegrate. No trace of the shattered aircraft has been found. An exploit demonstrating the extraordinary skill and endurance of a British bomber crew is now made public. During a recent night raid on NorthWest Germany, a R.A.F. bomber encountered and shot down a Messeischmitt 109, after two attempts had been made to prevent the British aircraft reaching its target. In the first attack, shells from the enemy’s cannon gun cut the intercommunication system and wounded the wireless operator and observer. The pilot, however, was unaware of what had happened to his crew and continued to run up towards his target. Within minutes, an enemy fighter again attacked. This time the pilot spotted his adversary and turned violently to port. In a moment, the enemy machine, out of control, dived down to the ground. After this encounter, the pilot returned to his target and bombed it. A few seconds later his starboard engines were hit in a duel with an enemy fighter and caught fire, but the fire was soon put out. The aircraft had been hard hit and off the Scottish coast the pilot gave the crew the choice of bailing out by parachute or taking the risk of coming down in the sea. The crew were united in a determination to carry on. By now one engine had failed, but the pilot struggled on with the other towards the English coast. On reaching , it, the engine power proved insufficient to lift the aircraft over a cliff. It therefore turned and limped along close inshore. Eventually a landing was made on a beach. Fortunately the tide was out and the aircraft came down in shallow water. The crew were saved and the aircraft was soon salvaged.
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Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 June 1940, Page 6
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418FLASH & BURST Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 June 1940, Page 6
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