ALLIED AIR SUCCESS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 59, Issue 300, 2 October 1939, Page 5

ALLIED AIR SUCCESS.

RECONNAISSANCE OF LINES. CLOSE-UP PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN LONDON, September 30. The Air Ministry announces that Royal Air Force machines, reconnoitring the Western Front, were engaged in an air battle at a great height over enemy territory. “Wo suffered some casualties,” it states. “The enemy’s are unknown.” " The report adds that a successful reconnaissance was again carried out today and this evening. The Air Ministry also announces that the skill'of the Royal Air Fojrce pilots has provided Britain with a remarkable series of air photographs of the Siegfried'Line. They flew miles at a height of only 600 feet, taking close up photographs of gun emplacements, tank traps, and communication lines and noting the different types of camouflage. None of the machines were attacked either by gunfire or by fighter aeroplanes. German soldiers waved to one aeroplane. The Paris correspondent of the “New 'York Times” says that British and French reconnaissance flights furnished a detailed map of the entire German, lines, particularly of the West Wall. Much praise is given to the British, whose daring flights facilitated the final charting of the enemy positions. The reconnaissance flights crossed and recrossed the frontier, building up a completed air picture, covering miles of enemy territory. The machines were flying so low that many of the german gunners must have believed they were German machines. As one machine flew low over a newly-mounted anti-aircraft battery, the crew saw German troops busy camouflaging the guns. Hearing the drone of the aircraft’s engines, the men stopped working and looked up and waved in greeting. They might not have been so cheerful had they recognised the British bombers. ' Another reconnaissance flight” had. previously flown over the 0 line at an altitude of 21,000 feet hut heavy hanks of clouds made both photography and observation from the ground equally difficult. Yet the aircraft were spotted and “Archies” opened - fire. The shooting was very accurate and several shells burst uncomfortably near the machines. Between gaps in the clouds this flight managed to get pictures covering a huge expanse of country behind the Siegfried Line. When the. second flight came back with the close-up photographs, headquarters was able to build up a comprehensive picture of Germany’s defences. The Berlin radio claims that Germans shot down five British aeroplanes over Germany near Sarrbrucken and one French machine. It also claims that German fighter aeroplanes brought down 27 British and 37 French machines last month. No confirmation of these figures is obtainable, but substantial losses of German aircraft are known to have been incurred in the same period.