FORTY-THREE GERMAN PLANES SHOT DOWN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 October 1940, Page 5

FORTY-THREE GERMAN PLANES SHOT DOWN

In Raids on Britain Yesterday AGAINST LOSS OF 16 FIGHTERS WITH EIGHT PILOTS SAFE FOUR LARGE-SCALE ATTACKS REPELLED The Germans lost another 43 planes in raids on Britain yesterday, broadcast reports. Against this bag, 16 British fighters were lost, but the pilots of eight are safe. An Air Ministry communique states that between dawn and early afternoon four large scale attacks were made on south and south-east areas. Two formations crossed the coast near Dover and dropped bo»mbs on Bexhill and Hastings. ( Damage was caused to each of these towns and there were some fatal casualties. Another formation crossed the coast of Dorset but few of the planes penetrated for any distance inland. A larger attack was made early in the afternoon, when 180 planes came over Dungeness and were engaged and broken up before reaching London. A few managed to evade the defences and dropped bombs on the outskirts of London. Two German machines crashed near a south-east coast town. Both the pilots were captured. Individual planes were reported over a town in the Midlands, north-west coast towns and over Wales. There is no indication of bombs having been dropped. An unusual feature of yesterday’s encounters was that two Blenheim bombers shot down two German bombers over the North Sea.