BRIDGE DESTROYED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 157, 4 July 1940, Page 20

BRIDGE DESTROYED.

AIR FORCE WORK.

BATTLE OVER HOLLAND.

HAMILTON MAN'S PART. (From Our Correspondent.) HAMILTON, Wednesday. How a bridge in Holland was destroyed by British aircraft despite severe opposition is described in a letter received by Mr. E. Innes-Jones, of Hamilton, from his son, Sergeant-Observer Melville Innes-Jones, who wrote after his partial recovery from dangerous wounds received in the fight. Previously Sergeant InnesJones described an unsuccessful attack on the Scharuhorst in April. In that attack an armour-piercing bomb dropped by the writer missed the Scharnhorst by 10ft.

"A bridge in Holland had not been blown up, although many attempts had been made to demolish it," stated Sergeant Innes-Jones.

"Twelve Blenheim bombers .were dispatched to make eure of the job, and this we accomplished. I was in the machine leading the second flight, and had just drop|>ed my bombs and was watching them fall. The anti-aircraft lire was terrific and we could hear hihl feel the shells and shrapnel tearing into our wings. Suddenly 1 felt a soaring burn and found myself on my back on the floor of the machine alongside the pilot. A shell had exploded under me. We were also attacked by fighters. I could hear the gunner telling the pilot, Flight-Lieutenant Clayton, that the Meeserschinitt 109's were closing in. I did not care very much. The gunner had two guns put out of action, so he came forward and gave me a shot of morphia. The Blenheim turned for England and covered the 100 miles in an hour. The pilot found that the undercarriage of the machine had been shot away, and a pancake landing was made at 120 miles an hour. I was lifted out of the machine and brought to the hospital at Ipswich. It was net until some weeks later that I realised how dangerously ill 1 had been."

Of the 12 machines that went out only seven returned. There were 82 holes in the machine in which Sergeant Innes-Jones was operating. Concluding, the writer said he expected to be out of hospital in a few weeks, and when he became lit for duty he expected to be apj rinted a navigation instructor.