AIRMEN OF THE EMPIRE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 18, 22 January 1940, Page 10

AIRMEN OF THE EMPIRE

CALMNESS IN BATTLE

LEADERfS LOG TELLS STORY

(By Air Mall, fr«m "The Post's" London Representative.) I LONDON, December 19. While scores of Messerschmitts came wave after wave to tackle a formation' of Security Patrol British bombers near Heligoland, and while a German battleship, a cruiser, a U-boat, and small craft peppered the sky with anti-aircraft shells, .the leader of the R.A(F. flight calmly kept a log of the bathe.-- ■' '.- ■:■■■■■.'■" ■ ■'.■■■.. '■' In-point of numbers it was the biggest fight of the war. Five Messerschmitt fight ers were brought down, and, despite the unequal odds, we lost dnly three machines. The German naval and air forces were out to guard a crippled Nazi cruiser, the one torpedoed by the submarine which last week sighted the Bremen in the North Sea: ■ ■'.; .",''.. ' • • ■ ■ In his log, the R.A.F. leader methodically noted that one, two, three, four enemy aircraft crashed into the sea in flames. . "It was just getting dark, and these four aircraft burned for some time after hitting the water," he wrote. "They looked like four enormous beacons. They not only lit up the water, but also illuminated the sky, which added to the iiinpressiveness of the fight."

The fifth Nazi plane was then seen about 50ft above our leading bomber. As it dashed past at, terrific speed, the British gunner trained his gun on it, and the crew saw it fall away in a mass of flames. It looked like a big torch as it fell tdwards the sea somewhere near the other victims. The diary describes the battle as "a running fight along the German islands." Though the German warships brought every gun into action, the morale of the British flyers, he records, "was strengthened rather than shaken." The crews of the British planes all belonged to the Bomber Command, and were strongly representative of the Dominions. They included three Canadians. South Africa had two representatives. Of New Zealand's four members, one was an engineer. Australia was v represented by an exdraughtsman at the controls. Scotland had an assistant town clerk; The rest of the crews were English, Welsh, and Irish.'■"..■.•'.,.■..,'. .■ ';. "■ '. . ,