LONG FLIGHTS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 80, 15 January 1940, Page 5

LONG FLIGHTS

BRITISH RECONNAISSANCES. GREATEST SURVEY OF THE WAR. NAZI WARSHIPS ATTACKED. (United Press Association— Copyright.) LONDON, January 13. The Air Ministry announced that the Royal Air Force last night carried out extensive reconnaissance flights into Austria, Bohemia, and north-west and eastern. Germany, and security patrols were continued over the Heligoland Bight. All the British aircraft returned safely to the bases. It was the greatest survey flight of the war. The minimum estimate is that these machines covered at least 1000 miles and were obliged to fly at tremendous heights and endure extreme cold over snow-bound Central Europe. The flight was comparable to the trans-Atlantic flight from Newfoundland, with the additional strain of running the gauntlet of the Nazi defences, it is believed that two units partici--I'fTted. . The achievement contrasts vividly w ith the Nazis’ claims of reconnaissance over Britain, which were merely a shallow penetration of the coastal areas.

The ’planes began from France and dropped leaflets over Vienna and Prague. The evening newspapers enthusiastically record the flight over Austria and Bohemia, and reports from the pilots received later claim great attention.

The flight occupied about nine hours, and in spite of the low temperatures, later reports state that the crews suffered little from the cold, one pilot saying, “if anything, we were a little too warm.”

The flight so far is the outstanding leaflet raid of the war. The first town sighted by the pilots was one brilliantly lit somewhere on the Swiss border. Passing out into Germany, the aircraft spirt into two sections, one bound for Vienna and the other for Prague.

The difference in the efficiency of the black-out between Germany, on the one hand, and Austria and Bohemia on the other, was especially noticeable, many members of the aircraft crews remarking on the ease with which the Austrian towns were picked up by the lighting. One pilot said: “We could even see the headlights of cars moving along the roads.” Vienna was easily identified by the lights and the river, and the aircraft, having dropped leafllets, turned for home. On the way, this section passed over a large town believed to he Linz, and set a course for Frankfurt. The only event on the journey home w r as when one aircraft passed through u searchlight beam. The course was quickly altered and the machines were far away before anti-aircraft guns could open fire. Flight to Prague. Equally uneventful was the journey of the Prague section, one pilot saying: “We wore, expecting things to happen all the time. They never did. We were not fired at.” This section noticed that Munich was fairly well lit on the outward journey, but was well blacked-out when they returned. ' The engines of the aeroplanes behaved extremely well. “We could have gone on another five days,” was how one pilot put it. The Air Ministry also announced that Coastal Command machines attacked three enemy destroyers off the Horn Reefs, 25 miles off the coast of Jutland, on January 11. Bombs were seen to explode close to the destroyers. The aeroplanes suffered no damage. A German High Command communique states that eight bombers attempted to attack German destroyers in Heligoland Bay. Only two managed to drop bombs, without success. “We shot down one and damaged a second,” the communique said. “The remainder departed prematurely., “German fighters shot down the only Bristol fighters sighted over Germany on January 2.

“Apart from isolated nightly flights., which again were partly carried out by violating Dutch neutrality, there have been no important events on the Western Front. Our Air Force has continued reconnaissance in Eastern Franco and the North Sea and has brought back important results.” A spokesman of the British Air Ministry said that the Bristol Blenheim referred to in the German communique made a safe forced landing in hranc?. The German claim of having shot down one Royal Air Force bomber and damaged another in Heligoland Gay was entirely untrue. THE CERMAN ACCOUNT, ONE ’PLANE BROUGHT DOWN. lUnited Press Association—Copyright.) (Received This Day, 11.30 a.m.) , BERLIN, January 14. The newspapers publish an account by an eye-witness of ■ the attack at Horn Reefs. He says that German destroyers, lying in wait for enemy merchantmen that were attempting to reach England, several times saw the wreckage of ships which started the voyage despite the warning and had to be sunk. The destroyers suddenly sighted eight ’planes. Two, flying lower than the others, attacked. Anti-air-craft guns roared and hit their mark with tlio first shots. One crashed into the sea 100 yards away and broke up. The second lower flyer was hit, lint escaped. Meanwhile six more British ’planes approached the destroyers, but the accurate anti-air-craft fire made two of them each to drop two bombs far astern. Then all the ’planes turned for home.