REMARKABLE ACHIEVEMENTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 August 1940, Page 6

REMARKABLE ACHIEVEMENTS

Splendid Record of Spitfire Squadrons FRESH LAURELS WON ON SUNDAY NEW ZEALAND PILOT GAINS FURTHER DISTINCTION (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 1.17 p.m.) ’ RUGBY, August 19. All four enemy aircraft so far reported to have been destroyed in Monday’s actions were flying - alone when attacked. Three were Junkers 88’s and the fourth a Messerschmitt 110. Four different fighter squadrons brought them down. One sergeant-pilot, flying a Hurricane, describes how, after two attacks, a Junkers 88 burst into flames over the West Country and crashed. Both the other two Junkers 88’s were brought down in the Channel. The Messerschmitt 110 crashed into the North Sea after being attacked by a patrol of Spitfires. A Spitfire squadron which has destroyed or damaged more than 130 enemy aircraft since the war began won fresh laurels in Sunday’s great enemy attack. Early in the day, some of the squadron pilots chased a Messerschmitt 110 over south-east England at 30,000 feet and brought it down. Later, in the first of two mass raids, the squadron again went into action, and after some, fierce combats returned to its base to report that it had destroyed four Messerschmitt 109’s. Three other raiders were probably sent crashing to the sea, and six more are believed to have been damaged by the same squadron. In the evening, the squadron scored yet further successes, destroying four Messerschmitt 110’s and one Dornier 17. In addition, it probably destroyed three Messerschmitt 110’s and damaged another four of the same type, together with two Heinkel Ill’s, making a bag for the day of ten enemy aircraft destroyed, six probably destroyed and twelve damaged. It was this squadron which saw the main formation of enemy bombers which it was about to attack turn back under anti-aircraft fire. The only casualty which the squadron sustained during the day was slight damage by bullets to two aircraft. None of the pilots was hurt. It was a strenuous day for them all. The squadron-leader, who had brought down several enemy aircraft, spoke of terrific dogfights and described how his pilots had more than once. torn up into the sky from 3,000 feet to 30,000 feet in search of the enemy. A New Zealand pilot recently awarded the D.F.C. not only helped to destroy a Messerschmitt 110 in the morning, but also damaged a Dornier 215 in the first mass raid and brought down a Messerschmitt 110 and probably destroyed two other raiders in the evening.