AERIAL ROUT

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 94, 15 January 1940, Page 8

AERIAL ROUT

Messerschmitts Met By Four French Planes

THREE OF TWELVE BROUGHT DOWN

Spectacular Battle

By Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright. (Received January 14, 8.15 p.m.) PARIS, January 13.

A second lieutenant and three sergeants piloted four French planes which today engaged 12 Messerschmitts and brought down three of them.

The Germans, flying at a great height, suddenly swooped on the Frenchmen, who were escorting a reconnaisseur home from a photographic mission. The battle, which occurred at 10,000 feet, was a series of spectacular aerobatics.

One Messerchmitt was shot down in flames, the second went into a spin,, and the third was forced down to an altitude of 2500 feet and raced across the German lines before being shot down from behind.

SHIPS’ ORDEALS

Ruthless German Air

Attacks

(British Official Wireless.)

RUGBY, January 12

Typical of the recent relentless German air attacks on unarmed merchantmen and helpless. fishing trawlers are stories now available in some detail of the attacks on the merchant ship Jevington Court on Tuesday and on the fishing trawler Star of Scotland. At about 11 a.m. on January 9 those ' on the bridge of the Jevington Court heard the sound of aircraft engines. One Dornier 17 appeared. It was flyvery low and circled round tlie steamer to make sure she was defenceless. , , It circled again and as it passed over the steamer opened fire with machinegun bullets, which tore up the deck planking, splintered the sides of the wheelhouse, and shattered the skylights and hatches. One bullet went through the engine-room skylight and put the dvnamo out of actiou. Another glanced off the rail of the bridge and carved a long groove in the mahogany chart table. Hairsbreadtli Escape. The machine circled again and this time also dropped a salvo of four bombs. They fell wide because the Jevington Court was zig-zagging. The aircraft returned to the attack with machine-guns and bombs. The bombs fell nearer and their explosion shook the ship, but did no damage. . In the next attack the aircraft was still raking the deck with machine-gun fire and dropped two more bombs. Men on the upper deck who were trying to dodge the hail of machine-gun bullets saw these bombs falling and were certain they would hit the ship, but the vessel was under the full helm and the bombs missed by six feet. The explosion of them, however, seemed to lift the ship. Everything movable was thrown about, and even the compasses were lifted out of their gimbals and thrown out of the binnacles. The safety valves of the boilers were lifted oft their seatings and the concussions sent up clouds of coal dust through the z bunker hatches. The aircraft apparently thought the bombs had hit and that the ship was sinking. It disappeared eastward, flying fast and high. The crew of the Jevington Court gathered themselves together, shook the coal dust out of their eyes and discovered that the ship was virtually undamaged, and continued the voyage. By an aston. isliing stroke of luck there were no casualties on the Jevington Court. This remarkable luck was not the case in the attack on the- Star of Scotland. That trawler was hauling her trawl oil' the Shetland Islands when a ; German bomber appeared and machinegunned her. The crew ran for what shelter they could find. The aircraft circled and returned to the attack, dropping three bombs. One of these struck, demolishing the wheelhouse, wrecking the steering gear and killing two of the crew and wounding two. The crew then tried to abandon ship. They succeeded in launching a small boat under fire; and three men jumped into it, whereupon the aircraft machinegunned the small boat, sinking it and leaving three men struggling in the water. The aircraft then made two further bombing attacks on the trawler without scoring further hits and flew off eastward. The trawler succeeded in picking up tlie three men clinging to the wreckage of the small boat. Then jury steering gear was rigged and the Star of Scotland, with her wheelhouse completely smashed, with a gaping hole in her fore deck, and with the casing of the funnel and the upper works riddled by ma-chine-gun bullets, was brought to port with her dead and wounded.

RUSH FOR TICKETS

Mr. Winston Churchill’s

Address

(British Official Wireless.)

(Received January 14, 9 p.m.)

LONDON, January 13.

With thousands of letters still unopened, applications for admission to the meeting in the Manchester Free Trade Hall which the First Lord of the Admiralty. Mr. Winston Churchill, will address on January 27 are already more’ than enough to fill the hall four times.

STEP BACK TO NORMAL

(British Official Wireless.)

(Received January 14. 11 p.m.j

LONDON. January 13.

The cheap night trunk call telephone rates suspended at the outbreak of war are to be restored some time next month.