HEAVY AIR LOSSES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 April 1941, Page 6

HEAVY AIR LOSSES

SUFFERED BY GERMANS IN LIBYA THIRTY PLANES DESTROYED LAST WEEK. NOTABLE FEATS BY BRITISH PILOTS. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.42 a.m.) RUGBY, April 11. More than 30 enemy aircraft were shot down or destroyed by ground straffing in Cyrenaica last week. An Australian pilot has just recounted the details of an amazing two days, when 22 German aircraft were destroyed for the loss of one Hurricane. On the first day of intensive aerial activity, 20 German dive-bombers and their escorts, Messerschmitt 110's, were routed by the Hurricanes, and five Junkers and three Mesherschmitts weer destroyed. The combat was full of dramatic incident. On one occasion a Junkers was caught in a devastating cone of fire from a Hurricane and broke in two. Another pilot, who was out of ammunition, “shepherded" a Junkers down to the ground, where it crashed. The next day was even more disastrous for the enemy, when 14 German dive.-bombers, which ventured out unescorted, were shot down by British fighters. Very successful ground strafing has been done by the fighters. At Derna, in one of these expeditions, six Heinkels and two unidentified aircraft were destroyed.