DAYLIGHT ATTACKS

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21222, 19 September 1940, Page 7

DAYLIGHT ATTACKS

GERMANS LOSE 46 PLANES DEFENCES TOO GOOD (United Press Asn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) (Received Sept. 19, 1.30 p.m. LONDON, Sept. 18 A dsecription of yesterday’6 daylight attacks by the German air force on south-east England was given late last night by the Air Ministry news service. Five separate waves of bombers and fighters were sent over at intervals between 9.30 a.m. and 8 p.m. with the apparent object of wearing down the Royal Air Force fighter defence. The assaults were strenuous but the results were disappointing to the enemy, who lost 46 aircraft, as ascertained up to 10 p.m.—45 being shot down by Royal Air Force fighters and one by anti-aircraft fire. Each wave of German aircraft followed roughly the same course, coming over the Kent coast between Dungeness and North Foreland. Each was met by Hurricanes and Spitfires. Enemy Scatters Quickly One raid of 15 bombers surrounded, as one Royal Air Force pilot said, by a sphere of Messerschmitt 109 fighters, was dispersed so quickly when the Spitfires met them near the Kentish coast that only three British pilots got a chance to fire. A patrol of Hurricanes met a formation of enemy bombers, heavily protected by Messerschmitts, stepped up in tiers above them. They met near the Isle of Sheppey, on the way up the Thames Estuary. The Hurricanes made a head-on attack on the bombers, which jettisoned their bombs even before we attacked, one of the pilots said, and went straight out over Folkestone. Historic Building Hit An incendiary bomb damaged the Great Hall in Eltham Place—a famous historic fragment dating back six and a-half centuries. Firemen saved from destruction buildings which would have wiped out the last vestige of the Palace where Henry VIII. was educated and where Edward 111. held his Parliament. An anti-aircraft shell fell on the lawn at Westminster Abbey today, and an unexploded time-bomb fell near the American Embassy building, but did no damage. Large Enemy Formations Soon after 4 p.m. another 100 enemy planes came in over Kent, again making for the Thames Estuary, and before this was over another 250 bombers and fighters were already on their way, one formation of 100 coming in by Dungeness. It was these two attacks which took the roughest handling from the British fighters. A squadron of Spitfires over Kent shot down five bombers, one fighterbomber, as well as sharing in the destruction of another Heinkel. Better was to come, as a single squadron of Hurricanes, near the Thames Estuary shot down eight Dorniers and three Junkers, as well as sharing in the destruction of three more. In the same fight two other Hurricane patrols accounted for nine more bombers alone.