BRITISH PILOT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 283, 28 November 1940, Page 20

BRITISH PILOT.

HAD TO BALE OUT.

MACHINE-GUNNED BY NAZI.

"I didn't quite believe that this was done, but I do now after seeing it myself, - ' writes a Second Echelon sapper from England to relatives in Dunedin when describing how German planes followed a British parachutist down and machine-gunned him in the air. "At present we are camped in a battle area for the R.A.F.," he stated. "It is all oi>en country here and is literally covered with crashed planes. We see air battles every day, sometimes three or four. "The other day we saw three planes come down. One of them must have been ours. When the pilot baled out the enemy swooped down three times and machine-gunned him, but I don't knew whether they hit him or not. They were too far away to see." Early in October, he writes, the Second Echelon moved on what the men took to be the usual exercises. "So far we have not returned to camp, having been here about three weeks waiting for the threatened invasion, which so far has failed to materialise. We are camped here under canvas, and it is not so pleasant with winter rapidlv approaching. We are under big trees to screen us from attack. With not much to be done about the camp, time is dragging and everyone is snarling at each other," he continued.

"We are quite close to Canterbury Cathedral. All the stained glass windows have been reii" -■■•'I and the tombs sandbagged. The i v had a go at bombing it not so ■ go, but failed, although a Jiouse i>- i yards away was hit. The older if the building are about 80'J > old, so they would be probably a . narked if it was hit! The more damage the Germans do the more determined the people here get."' The troops were becoming quite accustomed to air raid alarms, and generallyslept through them, he concluded. He .bad j Us t returned from seeing three planes shot down. This was getting to be quite a commonplace affair. °