BACK IN PORT?

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 February 1942, Page 4

BACK IN PORT?

NAZI BATTLE-CRUISERS AFTER PURSUIT THROUGH STRAITS OF DOVER. THE BRITISH AIR ATTACKS. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.0 a.m.) LONDON, February 13. There can be little doubt that unless any of the three German warships are seriously damaged, they are now back in their" home port in Heligoland Bight, says the Press Association's naval correspondent. Our Home Fleet was not in a position to swoop down to meet and intercept before the warships were again hidden by darkness. The “Evening Standard” learns that 200 Messerschmitts and Focke Wulf fighters escorted the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in the Channel. They flew in relays from French air bases and probably many were badly damaged in addition to those certainly destroyed. The British United Press air correspondent says that every possible type of British aircraft was used in the Channel battle yesterday, including Swordfish planes, Beauforts, Wellingtons, Hampdens, Hudsons, Spitfires and Hurricanes. The fighter squadrons tore into the protective “umbrella” over the battleships, trying to smash them up enough to allow the torpedo-bombers and high-level bombers to get hits. There is no indication at present that we used dive-bombers.