CONTINUOUS ATTACKS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 February 1942, Page 3

CONTINUOUS ATTACKS

KEPT UP BY ROYAL AIR FORCE On Nazi Battle-Cruisers Running for Home DARING EFFORTS BY BRITISH FIGHTERS AND BOMBERS TREMENDOUS BARRAGE PUT UP BY ENEMY (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.20 a.m.) RUGBY, February 13. Describing the R.A.F. attack in the Channel battle, the Air Ministry news service says the first news of the whereabouts of the German battleships came from two Spitfires of the Fighter Command carrying out a shipping reconnaissance over the Channel yesterday morning. They were flying beneath low cloud when, shortly before eleven o’clock, they sighted the battleships with an attendant escort of destroyers and. E-boats, steaming up the French coast between Brest and Le Touquet. They were almost immediately attacked by twelve Messerschmitt 109 s and subjected to anti-aircraft fire from the ships, but evaded the opposition and returned to their base. Within a short time the first wave of the attack—a formation of torpedobombers with an escort of fifty fighters—was on its way to the French coast. Fresh waves of fighters, together with bombcarrying Hurricanes, followed at short intervals, and as the convoy cleared the Straits and made its way up the Belgian coast it was incessantly harried by relays of fighters. Hurricane and Spitfire squadrons kept up a series of almost continuous attacks on the escort vessels, firing and bombing at times almost from mast height, while above them other fighter squadrons engaged strong formations of Messerschmitt 109 s and FWl9Os, which formed a constant fighter screen above the convoy. From shortly after 11 a.m. until nearly 4 p.m,, fighters were constantly in action over the convoy. The pilots of one of the squadrons escorting torpedo-bombers reported seeing what appeared to be torpedoes striking one of the battleships and saw explosions around the ship. This was then surrounded by light craft, some of which appeared to our pilots to be British torpedoboats, which in turn were being attacked by the battleships ’ air escort of FWl9Os. Three torpedo hits claimed were scored by a Beaufort squadron of the Coastal Command. In extremely bad visibility, in which it was rarely possible to see further than half a mile, the Beauforts dropped torpedoes in quick succession, aimed at one or other of the large ships in the enemy convoy. To secure a clear run for the torpedoes it was necessary to drop them within the destroyer screen, which put up a formidable barrage of anti-aircraft fire. One Beaufort of this squadron had the top of the pilot’s cabin blown off by a shell burst. Four holes appeared in the port wing, near the engine, and the reargunner and wireless operator were injured. Another aircraft from this squadron probably destroyed one of two Messerschmitt 109 s by which it was attacked, after dropping torpedoes which were seen to run directly towards the Prinz Eugen. Although the Beaufort’s tail-plane was damaged, its crew succeeded in driving off two Messerschmitt 109 s, one of which was last seen going down in an almost vertical dive towards the sea, Not one plane of this Beaufort formation was lost.