REMARKABLE ESCAPE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 June 1941, Page 6

REMARKABLE ESCAPE

MADE BY BRITISH PLANE AT ST. NAZAIRE OVERTURNED BY EXPLOSION OF SHELL. RECOVERY FROM "SCREAMING DIVE." (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11.50 a.m.) - RUGBY, June 11. In daylight today, aircraft of the R.A.F. bombed the mole at Zeebrugge and docks at Ymuiden and also sank a small vessel off the Dutch coast and shot down an enemy plane into the sea. Details of last night’s R.A.F. activities issued by the Air Ministry News Service disclose that off the Norwegian coast, a Beaufort aircraft launched a torpedo and struck a. 2,000-ton enemy supply ship amidships. The explosion sent up a column of steam and a spout of water rose as high as the mast. The ship appeared to be on fire as the aircraft flew away. Enemy-occupied aerodromes at Mandal and Stavanger were also attacked by Coastal Command aircraft. Bombs were- dropped on the docks at St. Nazaire, an occupied port in the Bay of Biscay. One aircraft had just turned away after the attack on St. Nazaire when an anti-aircraft shell burst close by. The force of the explosion turned the aircraft completely over and temporarily stunned (lie pilot and observer. When the pilot recovered, the aircraf*was in a "screaming dive." between 500 and 1,000 feet from the ground. The observer recovered consciousness at the same time as the pilot. He struggled to bring the aircraft under control, but it went into a series of switchback movements. It finally became stable again and the pilot climbed cautiously and set a course for his base. The explosion had blown back the hatch cover arid everything loose inside the aircraft —navigation instruments, parachute packs and so. ondisappeared. The aircraft flew back to tlie base with a gale raging inside the fuselage. It landed safely.