SECOND EDITION.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 136, 8 June 1917, Page 6

SECOND EDITION.

ENEMY AEROPLANES WRECKED. SIXTY-TWO IN FOUR DAYS. BRITISH LOSE 0-fT.T TWHUTY TS FIERCE AIR FIGHTING. (Received 2 p.m.) LONDON, June 7. Latest accounts of the enemy air raid show! that half of Tuesday's raiders have not returned to Germany. Two machines were shot down in the Medway, two between Kent and Dunkirk, and two oiT Ostend, while four others were driven down off Ostend, two of them being destroyed. Eye-witnesses state that the formation of the raiding planes over the Medway consisted of a line of bomb-throwers, with other aeroplanes on their flanks ready to engage the Britishers, who quickly ascended. The Germans, at first flying very high, came lower than in previous raids, but not a British gun was fired until the attackers were above the town. Then the raiders suddenly found themselves caught in a great ring of fire; they seemed to be trapped. A British shell caught one German machine and sliced off its propeller. The aeroplane dived, but the pilot recovered himself, looping the loop as he descended several times, each time to break the speed of his descent. A British patrol boat, which was the first to reach the scene, released wounded Germans, but it was impossible to salve the wrecked plane. A German officer succumbed yesterday. Ten minutes after the first enemy plane was wrecked another German machine buret into flame, and pitched downward at a tremendous speed, falling in the town. The rest of the enemy aircraft managed to get out of the ring of British fire and fled, our machines chasing them. The worst damage done in the town was to a clothing store. Two bombs exploded in a building, which collapsed. Fortunately a large number of women workers had been removed when the raid was announced. The fire brigade was able to extinguish the fire. The missiles included many aerial torpedoes, whereof the buzzing whirr of the propellers gave warning as they fell. Since Sunday the British brought down sixty-two enemy aeroplanes. Our losses were only twenty.— (A. and N.Z. Cable.)