VERY HOT RECEPTION

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21219, 16 September 1940, Page 8

VERY HOT RECEPTION

GREAT AIR BATTLES DRIVEN BACK FROM LONDON COSTLY DAY FOR GERMANS (Ofllclal Wireless) (Received Sept. 16, 3.15 p.m.) RUGBY, Sept. 15 The great air battles today made it one of the most costly days for the German Air Force for nearly a month, states the Air Ministry news service. During the day between 250 and 400 enemy aircraft were launched in two waves against London and the south-east coast. The great majority of the German raiders that escaped were chivvied and harassed at all stages. The first wave came in the morning about 11.30 a.m., when about 200 bombers and fighters began to cross the English coast in about eight or ten different groups. They streamed in above the cliffs and beaches between Dover and Dungeness. The second attack began about 2.15 p.m., when about ten groups of bombers and fighters, totalling 150 to 200, crossed the same stretch of coast. Later in the afternoon two smaller attacks were made on the Portland and Southampton areas. In every case the fighters’ patrol was ready to meet the enemy. The two main attacks on the London area received such a gruelling as never before. Spitfire and Hurricane squadrons, many veterans in the London defence, fought them over the Kent coast, Maidstone, Canterbury, and above the Medway and the Thames Estuary. Nazis Handled Roughly Many were turned back. The survivors they fought again over London itself, squadron after squadron of fighters flying fresh in to action. Finally they were chased back again and out over the Channel from whence they came. A squadron of Hurricanes which destroyed nine enemy planes began to fight over London and ended up over the cliffs at Hastings. Another chased a group of bombers from the Thames at Hammer-

smith to Beachy Head, shooting down five on fhe way. A formation of Hurricanes which caught some of the enemy just as they were coming up the Thames handled them so roughly that one pilot thought it unlikely that any of the bombers would reach home, five Dorniers being definitely shot down. Another Hurricane pi lot who took part in the first stage of this attack described how the Dorniers broke formation, trying to dive for a cloud, pursued by Hurricanes. When the remaining Dorniers began the flight to the coast they were no longer in formation but merely the centre of a general melee, through which Spitfires and Hurricanes were flying at will and choosing whichever target pleased them.