SPLENDID SHOOTING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 September 1941, Page 6

SPLENDID SHOOTING

BY BRITISH ANTI-AIRCRAFT BRIGADE. DESTRUCTION OF 200 NAZI PLANES. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, September 7. A remarkable achievement in the accuracy and efficiency of anti-aircraft guns has been recorded on an aircraft propeller in the headquarters of an anti-aircraft brigade in. South-east England, which has shot down 200 enemy aircraft. The names of the types destroyed have been scratched on the propeller. It is doubtful if in the history of the world any other brigade has yet attained that figure. Most of the successes were achieved during the Battle of Britain, when the personnel consisted almost entirely of Territorials. During the best day 16 German raiders were destroyed, and in one three-day period 30 raiders were shot out of the sky. One gun site accounted for three planes in two minutes —two with one salvo and later one. On the same day another site shot down a Messerschmitt 109 with its first salvo, although the aircraft was over five miles up. After one detachment had brought down a high-level bomber they were able to crash a dive-bomber With direct hits over open sights When they Were attacked.