OVER VIENNA AND PRAGUE

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 94, 15 January 1940, Page 7

OVER VIENNA AND PRAGUE

Great R.A.F.Leaflet Raid NAZI EFFORTS VIVIDLY CONTRASTED (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) ' Received January 14, 8.40 p.m. LONDON, January 13. The Air Ministry announced: “The Royal Air Force last night carried out an extensive reconnaissance in Austria, Bohemia, and north-west and eastern Germany, while the security patrols continued over Heligoland Bight, All our aircraft returned safely to their bases. “It was the greatest survey flight of the war.” The Air Ministry did not reveal the point from which the flight was made, but the minimum estimate is that the machines covered at least 1000 miles and were obliged to fly at tremendous heights and endure extreme cold over snow-bound Central Europe. It was later reported that the machines began from France, and that they dropped leaflets over Vienna and Prague. The flight is comparable with a transatlantic flight from Newfoundland, with the additional strain of running the gauntlet of the Nazis’ defences. Two units participated.

The achievement contrasts vividly with the Nazis’ claim of reconnaissance flights over Britain, which were merely a shallow penetration of coastal areas.

On the previous night the Royal Air Force carried out an extensive reconnaissance over Germany and even returned to the scene of the recent fierce battle over the naval bases near the Danish frontier. The Air Ministry stated that the air force made a successful reconnaissance flight over west and north-west Germany and patrols over the German seaplane bases in the Heligoland Bight.