ONE OF GERMANY'S MOST COSTLY DAYS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 220, 16 September 1940, Page 8

ONE OF GERMANY'S MOST COSTLY DAYS.

'PLANES IN WAVES. Raiders On London Given Severe Gruelling. British Official Wireless. (Heed. 2.30 p.m.) RUGBY, Sept. 15. The great air battles to-day 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, 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 ir>o 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 fighters on patrol were ready to meet the enemy. The two main , attacks on the London area received such a <*nielling as never before. Spitfire and Hurricane squadrons, many veterans in London defence, fought them over the Kent coast, Maidstone and Canterbury and above Medway and the Thames Estuary. Many were turned back. The survivors fought again over London itself, squadron alter squadron of fighters flying fresh into action. Finally they were chased back again and out over the Channel from whence they came. A squadron of Hurricanes which destroyed nine of the enemy began a fight over London and ended up over the cliffs of Hastings. Another chased a group of bombers from- the Thames at Hammersmith to Beachy Head, shooting down five on the 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 bombers would reach home, five Dorniers being definitely shot down. Another Hurricane pilot who toolc part in the first stage of this attack described how the Doruiere broke formation trying to dive for a cloud, pursued by Hurricanes. When the re-, maining .Dorniers began their flight to the coast they were no longer in formation, but merely in the centre of a general melee, through which Spitflers and Hurricanes were flying at will, choosing whichever target pleased them. Londoners' Confidence. Londoners heard the fourth air raid warning at 8.10 p.m., but were well prepared for facing another noisy night. Not ojily had they the greatest confidence in the new anti-aircraft barrage, :3&ut the news that 175 enemy machines had been destroyed during the day and at the same time British bombers had given severe treatment to enemy barges and other concentrations was regarded as particularly encouraging. Many Londoners also had seen the evidence of R.A.F. successes in the pieces of German aeroplane wreckage lying in central London and suburban areas, such as Kensington Oval, Streatham and Victoria railway station.