STOP PRESS NEWS

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21211, 6 September 1940, Page 4

STOP PRESS NEWS

GERMAN LOSSES 33 PLANES SHOT DOWN LONDON, Sept. 5 An Air Ministry communique reports that up to midnight five more enemy aircraft were destroyed on Thursday. One of these, a Dornior bomber, was shot down by a Tyneside anti-aircraft battery at 11.15 p.m. This brings the total enemy aircraft destroyed on Thursday up to 39. Twenty of our fighters were lost but the pilots of nine are safe. CONTEST OF NERVES CONFIDENCE IN BRITAIN LONDON, Sept. 5 Referring to the war in the air, Mr Winston Churchill said: “The Gormans claimed to have destroyed IS2I British planes in July and August. Actually we lost 555. Our loss in pilots, happily, was very much less. If there is to be, as suggested in a recent oration, a contest of nerves, willpower and endurance, in which the whole English and German people are to engage, then, be it sharp or long, we shall not shrink from it. Wo believe the spirit and temperament bred under freedom will provo more enduring and resolute than anything which can be got from the most efficiently enforced mechanical discipline. I don’t agree that after September 15, or whatever is Hitler’s latest date, we shall be free from the menace of deadly attack from overseas."

BRITISH FLEET NOT FACED BY ITALIANS LONDON, Sept. 5 Reuters’ Gibraltar correspondent says that the British fleet was steaming for five days in the Mediterranean, but found no flag afloat except the White Ensign. It patrolled the Italian coast for two days within striking distance of six Italian aerodromes, but tha challenge was not accepted. The Fleet Air Arm again bombed Cagliari. Twice the raiders dropped high explosive and incendiary bombs on the Eteimas aerodrome and Cagliari aircraft. All the planes returned to the Aircraft-carrier after both raids. ALEXANDRIA, Sept. 5 Cruisers and destroyers, which were at sea for several days, successfully bombarded Scarpanto at close quarters. Italian planes repeatedly attacked the British ships but no damage was done. Two torpedoes are reported to have hit an Italian cruiser. Four Italian planes were brought down. British planes sighted the Italian fleet, which immediately returned to port.