EIGHT A DAY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 July 1942, Page 3

EIGHT A DAY

ENEMY PLANE LOSSES OVER MALTA SO FAR THIS MONTH. BALANCE MUCH IN FAVOUR OF DEFENDERS. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, July 13. So far this month the enemy has paid a. high price for his persistent air attacks on Malta, says the Air Ministry news service. British fighters have accounted for nearly eight planes a day. The Germans have tried night attacks, but our night fighters have done their share in the destruction. The British losses were 21 planes —little more than one-quarter of the enemy’s. Nine of the British pilots were saved.

“STORK” DESTROYED BEHIND GERMAN LINES. FEAT BY AUSTRALIAN PILOTS. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, July 13. Royal Australian Air Force pilots in the Middle East are anticipating good news because during recent operations they destroyed a "stork" behind the German’s lines. They were strafing enemy vehicles and troops in the desert when they saw a German communications plane —a "stork”—taking oil. These planes, Which bear a striking resemblance to a stork, can take off and land at remarkably low speeds in practically no space. They are almost always used to ferry impotant Axis officials about the front. When the plane was about 10 feet

off the ground the Australians pounced, dropping a bomb which burst directly overhead, turning the stork on its back. A second Hurricane completed the annihilation of the machine.