ONCE AGAIN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 March 1942, Page 3

ONCE AGAIN

AIR ASSAULT ON MALTA SMASHED GUNS & FIGHTERS TAKE HEAVY TOLL. 17 ENEMY PLANES DESTROYED OR DAMAGED. LONDON, March 26. It is now known that in yesterday’s air battle over Malta—one of the biggest ever fought over the island—at least 17 German bombers and fighters were destroyed or damaged. Several dive-bombers are believed to have crashed into the sea, but our pilots did not have time to follow up' their victims and listed them as probcible losses A ship lying off the coast of Malta was attacked by German planes and this gave our fighters the chance they were waiting for. Our fighters broke up the formations and sent several of them hurtling into the sea. The German pilots were so rattled that all their bombs fell wide of the ship. Thirty dive-bombers attacked shipping in the Grand Harbour. Many were turned back by our anti-aircraft barrage and a large number of bombs fell harmlessly into the water. WHIRLWIND BATTLE bad day for stukas. SPITFIRES AND HURRICANES BUSY. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.28 a.m.) RUGBY, March 26. In one of the biggest air battles ever fought over Malta, Spitfires and Hurricanes yesterday afternoon shot out of the sky a formation of 30 Junkers 87 dive-bomb-ers. At least half did not _ return home, or landed riddled with cannon shell splinters and machinegun bullets, states the Air Ministry news service. Flying at about 7,000 feet, the enemy bombers zigzagged down from Sicily to attack a ship lying off the coast. They came in pairs, in line astern. Stepped above them were the usual protecting Messerschmitts . For days the Luftwaffe has tried to silence the island’s fighter defence. That they had failed was demonstrated yesterday afternoon. It was just the chance for which the Spitfire and Hurricane pilots had been waiting. Before the Stukas had a chance to dive on the ship, the British fighters swooped on them, breaking up their formation. So rattled were the German pilots that all their bombs fell wide and the ship did not sustain any damage from a near miss. In spite of the Messerschmitts, at the end of fifteen minutes of whirlwind battle, the British fighters were unscathed. The enemy lost two Messerschmitt 109 fighters, one Junkers 87 dive-bomber was destroyed and six Junkers 87s were probably destroyed. Eight Junkers 87 were seriously damaged. There is good reason to believe that several dive-bombers crashed into the sea, but the British pilots, outnumbered, were so busy engaging in combat that they had no time to follow each of their adversaries down.

A short while later, the Luftwaffe sent over a single formation of thirty Junkers 87s to attack shipping in the Grand Harbour. The enemy pilots had to run the gauntlet of an intense antiaircraft harbour barrage and many were deterred and a large number of bombs fell harmlessly in the water.