NIGHT FIGHTERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 May 1943, Page 4

NIGHT FIGHTERS

FIRST USE IN NEW GUINEA AT PORT MORESBY ON FRIDAY ONE ENEMY BOMBER SHOT DOWN BY AMERICAN. ANOTHER DESTROYED BY GROUND DEFENCES. (Special Australian Correspondent.) (Received This Day. 12.45 p.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. Allied night fighters went into action for the first time in New Guinea when four Japanese bombers raided Port Moresby last Friday night. One bomber was shot down by a night fighter, and another was destroyed by anti-aircraft fire. The Allied pilot who brought down the bomber was SecondLieutenant B. W. Adams, Illinois. It was his first operation. Lieutenant Adams said: “When I first saw the bombers they were about 2,000 feet ahead, and I dived to the attack from 18,000 feet. One bomber dived, and I could still see its silhouette standing out against a background cf cloud. I followed him down and gave him everything I had. He burst into flames, and I saw him spinning, cut of control, through the clouds, like a flaming torch.” The Japanese in the South-West Pacific are now flying “Japs,” a new type cf Zero, with a more powerful engine than their predecessors. This has been revealed by Australia’s leading fighter ace, Wing Commander Clive Caldwell. “This new enemy fighter,” he said, “is a hotted-up sort of Zero, squarer in the wing-tips than the old Zero, and more powerful. They are good aircraft —but not as good as the Spitfire. The Spitfire is faster and can climb higher.” Wing Commander Caldwell, who has taken part in recent battles between Spitfires and Japanese raiders over Darwin, is in Sydney on leave. He has destroyed 241 aircraft —German, Italian and Japanese. ATTACK ON SUBMARINE. An Australian Beaufighter pilot is reported to have dived from clouds to within ten feet of a Japanese submarine cruising on the surface in New Guinea waters. He raked the craft with cannon and machine-guns fire and killed sailors who were manning the deck gun. The submarine crash-dived to avoid further attacks.