HARD HITTING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 August 1941, Page 6

HARD HITTING

-—— — AT ENEMY COASTAL CONVOYS NUMBER OF SHIPS DESTROYED. DARING ATTACKS BY BRITISH BOMBERS. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11.15 a.m.) RUGBY, August 27. A vivid description cf yesterday's R.A.F. operations is given by the Air Ministry news service. Convoys attacked in daylight by Blenheims of the Bomuer Command were very well protected. The first convoy was found off the German .Frisian Islands, soon after neon, by Blenheims flying without a fighter escort. There were six anti-aircraft ships on guard, and overhead a standing patrol of Messerschmitt 100 s circling at about a

thousand feet. Against this formidable protection, the Blenheims flew in formation, mast high. The' first Blenheim attacked a freighter. The crew believed that they got a hit on the after part of the ship, but they could not see the explosion of the bombs, because the captain of the aircraft had to make a sharp turn to avoid hitting the ship’s mast. Another Blenheim then attacked the freighter, and the bombs fell amidships. Flames and black smoke leaped sixty feet in the air. Other crews saw the freighter burning and bombed and machine-gunned both the convoy and the escort. Meanwhile the gunners kept up a concentrated fire on the enemy. One gunner alone fired 1,500 rounds. He saw pieces fall off a Messerschmitt 100. The anti-aircraft ships put up a fierce defence and one bomber, which flew through a thick barrage, was seen to be hit and to dive into the sea. About an hour later Blenheims, witn a fighter escort, found a larger convoy off the Dutch coast. There were two parallel lines of merchant ships, staggering in line astern, with anti-aircraft ships at the four corners of the convey and two in the middle on the seaward side. Guns on shore reinforced the barrage. Enemy fighters were seen, but they stood off and did not engage either the Blenheims or their escorts. A Blenheim attacked one of the largest ships of the convoy from fifty feet. The bomb blew all the superstructure from amidships, and at once black smeke covered the whole ship. Another Blenheim attacked, and the crew saw the ship break up. It sank and left qo trace. All the smoke was gone and there was no wreckage left on the water. Four other ships were hit. After a bomb burst on one of them, flames belched from the funnel and half a minute later there were clouds of steam which blanketed the flames. Another larger ship was left in flames.