CONVOY ATTACK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 81, 5 April 1940, Page 7

CONVOY ATTACK.

SUCCESS CLAIMED. Germans Say They Sank Several British Ships. ADMIRALTY'S DIRECT DENIAL. United Press Association.—Copyright. (Received noon.) LONDON, April 4. , Tne Berlin communique claims that one destroyer, one patrol boat and two merchantmen of the total tonnage of 7000 were seriously damaged in the attack on a convoy "yesterday. Tho report adds that three patrol boats and one merchantman of 5000 tons were destroyed by incendiary bombs, and one patrol boat and three merchant- j men of a total tonnage of 17,000 were damaged by bomb hits. Two German 'planes made a forced landing and tlie crews were saved. One plane is missing. One British fighter was shot down. The British Admiralty confirms that no damage was done "in the convoy attack, which was driven off. A Nazi bomber attacked British trawlers fishing in the North Sea yesterday. The crew of the Aberdeen trawler Gorspen took to a lifeboat when a bomb fell nearby, apparently damaging the ship. They were later picked up. One fisherman was injured. The Gorspen was still afloat when last seen. No other vessel was damaged. The German bombers which attacked the Gorspen bombed the trawlers Corennie and Delila. They dropped two bombs and seven aerial torpedoes, but all missed. The trawlers fired on the raiders, and members of the crew believe that one was hit. The 'planes made off when a fighter approached. The Grimsby trawler Russell hauled :up a mine while trawling. It exploded j and slightly damaged the vessel.

THRILLING COMBAT. Coastal Command Spitfire Brings Down Heinkel. BRITISH PILOT CRASHES. LONDON, April 4. After a thrilling combat 12 miles off the Yorkshire coast yesterday afternoon, a pilot of the Coastal Command flying a Supermarine Spitfire fighter shot down a Heinkel bomber reconnaissance machine, and his own aeroplane also crashed in flames into the sea. Both the British pilot and the German crew were rescued and brought ashore. The British machine was the first unit of the Coastal Command Inst in the war, and the Heinkel was the 52nd victim of the Coastal Command. The crew of the Heinkel were picked up by a fishing boat, whose skipper saidt* "When the Heinkel came overhead during the combat my brother Tom let go with the Lewis gun. The aeroplane came down in the sea a quarter of a mile away. One of the crew, who spoke English, said the Spitfire had partly disabled one of the Heiukel's engines, and our shots did the rest." The pilot of the Spitfire gave A vivid running description of the fight. Listeners heard him announce that lie had made contact with the Heinkel, then that he had shot it down. There came a pause, after which the pilot said briefly: "I am on fire. I am lauding on the sea."