ATLANTIC RAIDERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 March 1941, Page 5

ATLANTIC RAIDERS

NAZI BOMBERS SEVERELY HANDLED AT LEAST ONE SHOT DOWN. OTHERS PUT TO FLIGHT. German long-range bombers have been severely handled over the Atlantic, states the 8.8. C. In one engagement one was shot down and another appeared to be so badly disabled that it would fail to reach its base. Two others were put to flight, off the south coast of Ireland. SUNDERLAND SUPREME ENCOUNTER WITH TWO JUNKERS. ACCURATE FIRE TELLS. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day. 10.35 a.m.) RUGBY, March 6. An Air Ministry communique slates: "In the course of routine operations yesterday, a flying boat of the Costal Command, while on patrol in the Atlantic. encountered two enemy bombers. One enemy aircraft was'shot down into the sea and the other was severly damaged before it made off.” The Air Ministry news service says a Sunderland flying boat, which was Australian manned, sighted two Junkers 88’s on a parallel course about a mile and a half to port. They were five hundred feet above the sea. The Sunderland kept a close watch, but about an hour later the Junkers unexpectedly reappeared out of a cloud, diving together towards the Sunderland and blazing away with their guns. They closed to 250 yards, firing continuously. The Sunderland held its fire until it come down to a hundred feet above the water. The bursts which it then fired into the enemy Were too much for the Junkers. When two hundred yards away they turned aside and began to climb. Thirty seconds later, one came plunging downwards with smoke pouring from it and crashed into the sea. The second Junkers made another attempt to challenge the Sunderland and closed to two hundred yards before it broke away again from the Sunderland’s accurate firing. This bomber was so severely punished that there is little likelihood that it regained its base.