ENEMY SHOT DOWN

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 75, 29 March 1940, Page 7

ENEMY SHOT DOWN

OFF SCOTTISH COAST

BRITISH LOSSES

ONE PLANE HIT BY DUTCH

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) (Received March 29, 10.45 a.m.)

LONDON, March 28. It is officially announced that Royal Air "Force craft shot down ah enemy plane off the north-east co£st of Scotland.' This success, which occurred shortly after midday, makes the forty-eighth German plane that has, been destroyed over or near Britain since the outbreak of the war. It is reliably estimated that the Royal Air Force, the Navy, and antiaircraft defences since the war began have shot down a total of 129 planes and crippled 44 others. , A plane which wat believed to be German flew over the Shetland Islands this afternoon. British fighters sued it. The alarm lasted for 22 minutes. .■■'... The Air Ministry confirms' that German chasers shot down a British plane during a reconnaissance flight over the Heligoland Bight on March 27. The Royal Air Force last night carried out an extensive reconnaissance of norUi-west, Germany. Two machines have not returned. It is officially stated at The Hague that early this morning a British plane flew over Holland in a westerly direction. Dutch fighters hit the British plane,, which landed four miles west of Rotterdam. It appears that one occupant of the plane parachuted and fell to his death. The four Other occuleft the plane when it landed. One was wounded. The survivors were interned. The plane was burned out. Rotterdam reports that two Dutch fighters shot down a British Bristol Blenheim fighter. . One of the crew used his'parachute and the remainder succeeded in making a forced landing, despite the fact that the plane came down in flames. The crew were immediately arrested. One of them is reported to' have subsequently died of wounds. ■•■,_* A German communique repeats that British aircraft again violated Danish, Dutch, Belgian, and Luxemburg territory. .. . Brussels reports that many foreign planes whose nationality is not established flew 'over Belgium last night, and" that anti-aircraft guns fired on them.