HEAVY TOLL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 September 1941, Page 5

HEAVY TOLL

TAKEN OF ENEMY PLANES BY R.A.F. FIGHTERS & LAND DEFENCES. FIGURES FOR TWO YEARS OF WAR. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 9.55 a.m.) RUGBY, September 2. In two years of war against the Luftwaffe, the R.A.F. Fighter Command and anti-aircraft defences have destroyed 4,500 enemy aircraft. The British losses have been 1,400 fighters, the pilots of over 450 being saved. These figures do not include enemy machines destroyed by R.A.F. fighter squadrons based in France in the spring of 1940, or German aircraft shot down during the Norwegian campaign, nor do they include aircraft destroyed on the ground or hundreds of enemy machines “probably destroyed” and “damaged.” The Anti-aircraft-Command’s contribution to this total has been nearly 600. There are now fifteen squadrons in the Fighter Command, each which has shot down more than a hundred enemy machines since the war began. Three of these have more than 150 victories to their credit, while the leading squadron accounted for 175 Gorman aircraft. The Command’s leading pilot, destroyed 32 of the enemy, while four other pilots have individual bags of over 20.