GERMANS LOSE ANOTHER FIFTY PLANES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 August 1940, Page 5

GERMANS LOSE ANOTHER FIFTY PLANES

In Attacks on English Ports NINETEEN BRITISH FIGHTERS MISSING DAY AND NIGHT ATTACKS ON ENEMY TERRITORY Fifty German planes were destroyed in raids on Weymouth, Portland and the Straits of Dover yesterday, according* to an Air Ministry communique, transmitted by Daventry. Nineteen British fighters are missing, but it is hoped that some oi the pilots may be safe. A number of houses were damaged, some seriously and some damage was done to communications. An cil tank was set on fire, but the outbreak was soon extinguished. The attack on Portland caused some damage to two of his Majesty’s ships by splinters, but no other ships were damaged. The buildings damaged included a naval hospital. There were a number of casualties, but few were serious and only one was fatal. A German account states that more German fighters were leaving “to maintain air superiority over the Channel.” This gives seme idea of the losses inflicted on the enemy. The fifty German planes lost include six referred to in an earlier communique reporting an attack on a barrage baloon on the southeast coast and two German fighters were shot down. In a second engagement over the East Coast three German fighters and a bomber were shot down.

The Prime Minister, Mr Winston Churchill, has sent a message on behalf of the War Cabinet congratulating the fighter squadrons which brought down sixty German planes on Thursday. Day and night attacks have been made by the R.A.F. on enemy aerodromes. Another attack was made on Guernsey. Since the first attack it appears that the Germans have removed their aircraft from that island. Two British machines are missing. In night operations British bombers raided a German naval base, and oil supplies and depots. One British machine is missing.