ATTACK ON CONVOY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 September 1941, Page 6

ATTACK ON CONVOY

BRITISH SHIP BRINGS BACK SOUVENIRS PIECES OF GERMAN AIRCRAFT, PLANE STRIKES VESSEL'S MAST. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, September 10. Many pieces of German aircraft, including a section of a wing five feet long, were souvenirs which fell on the deck of the small British merchantman Nephrite when she shot down an aircraft during an attack on a convoy off the East Coast of Britain. About ten German planes attacked this convoy in waves. The captain of the Nephrite said: “One aircraft came straight at us. We let go with our defensive machine-guns which caused him to sheer away. As he did so he dropped two bombs which exploded near us but did no damage. He also fired a machine-gun at us but. only two or three bullets hit the ship. Five minutes later another aircraft flew towards us very low. We opened fire and hit him right on the engines just as he was rising clear of our mast. The engines caught, fire, oil poured down on our deck and he struck our mast, carrying away part of the topmast. Then he dived steeply and crashed into the sea about 60 feet away.” The Nephrite continued her voyage and reached port safely.

STIRRING ENCOUNTERS BRITISH PLANES BEAT OFF ENEMY FIGHTERS. DURING BOMBING OF BERLIN. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, September 11. The bomber crews who took part in Sunday night’s raid on Berlin, Kiel and the Boulogne docks have described various encounters with German fighters. Over Holland a Wellington was caught in a searchlight. Suspiciously there was no anti-aircraft fire, and suspicions were confirmed when the rear gunner suddenly saw tracer coming from 300 feet above and astern. He could not see the enemy fighter, but fired in the direction from which the tracer was coming. The enemy fire stopped, and instead the rear gunner saw small objects, black and smoking, fall through the searchlights' beams. The sudden opening of an anti-aircraft barrage may have indicated that the gun crews saw its destruction.

Over Berlin another Wellington was held by searchlights and was under a hot fire from the ground. Suddenly the guns stopped and almost at the same moment yellow tracer passed horizontally under the bomber. The enemy fighter could not be seen till it came so close that it was itself caught in the searchlights. The rear gunner saw that it was an Me 110. The Me was using cannon and machine-guns, firing long bursts, but the rear gunner waited till it was close and then fired two bursts and the enemy sheered off to port, dived away and was never seen again.

At times the presence of enemy fighters was detected only when they fired coloured lights as a signal. One fired signal cartridges to no effect. It was in a barrage and signalled to the gunners to hold their fire, but was hit and fell in flames.

There were combats with comparatively few fighters, for the bomber's aim is to hit the target and return. Sometimes the enemy followed a bomber for many minutes, till, by avoiding action and sudden changes of course or speed, the bomber escaped the fighter and went on to the more urgent work of bombing Berlin. Over Berlin a Hampden was held by the searchlights and dived to 4000 feet to get away. A fighter approached and fired from 100 feet. The Hampden pilot went on with the dive till 50 feet from the ground. Even there the bomber was still held by the searchlights, and not till it had flown several miles just over the trees and roof tops did it get away from the lights and the pursuing fighter. Other combats were fought to a finish. A Junkers 88 attacked a Wellington four times over Berlin and got in one or two hits. But when it made its fourth attack the Ju was seen to fly through a stream of bullets pouring from the Wellington’s rear turret and caught alight and fell to the ground.

In all four enemy fighters were definitely seen to bo destroyed and several more were damaged. From the reports of crews who saw several bombers shot down by the guns of Berlin, it is probable that, most of the casualties that night were not caused by night-fighters. The cost to Germany is measured not only in the damage done by the bombers but also by the diversion of a force of fighters from the Eastern front.