HEINKEL STALKED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 February 1942, Page 4

HEINKEL STALKED

HUNT THROUGH CLOUDS. FIGHTER PILOT’S SUCCESS. A night-fighter pilot who shot down a Heinkel 111 recently stalked his victim for nearly half an hour before he destroyed it. The pilot was on patrol when he was told that an enemy raider was in the neighbourhood. He searched for it, and by the light of the rising moon found it skimming the top of a thick cloud bank. The fighter pilot, a D.F.C. flight lieutenant, kept his distance, lest the enemy, which he identified as a Heinkel 111, should dive at his approach into the cover of the cloud.

The Heinkel was travelling toward the north-east where the D.F.C. pilot knew the cloud bank ended. He eased the throttle and let the enemy lengthen the gap between them, only hurrying when there seemed a risk of losing sight of his quarry. For nearly half an hour he kept the bomber in sight until at last the pair got beyond the cloud base. The fighter pilot then closed in to point-blank range. “I fired a three-second burst,” he reported. “The starboard engine of the enemy caught fire, then flames and explosions came from the fuselage. The enemy aircraft dived steeply to starboard, hitting the sea. We could see it burning on the surface.”