AIR SUCCESSES

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 30, 3 August 1940, Page 11

AIR SUCCESSES

BRITISH PLANES

OVER ENEMY TERRITORY

HEAVY FIRE MET WITH

(Official Wlrele&s and TJ.P.A.)

LONDON, August 2. The Air Ministry announces that a-strong force of Coastal Command aircraft carried out a successful daylight attack on a German-occupied aerodrome at Cherbourg on August 1 and pressed home their attack in the face of very heavy anti-aircraft fire. Three of the bombers are

roissmg. Three pilots of the original Canadian fighter squadron engaged two German dive-bombers during yesterday's encounters. A sergeantpilot shot down one enemy plane while protecting a convoy, and his comrades severely damaged the other in a running fight over the sea. All the Canadians returned safely. The Admiralty announced that planes of the Fleet Air Arm successfully bombed a wireless station and a 4000-ton German supply ship oft the Norwegian coast. The ship was last seen listing heavily. .The crew were abandoning the ship. All the planes returned. . .

An Air Ministry bulletin contains details amplifying Jfcereferring to the raid on Cherbourg. Direct hits, it states, wrecked the hangars, and heavy explosions followed the Blenheims*.salvos. There was^a large number of enemy aircraft on the aerodrome. Bombs burst among them and others pitted the landing ground.. Barrack blocks in another corner of the airfield were damaged. One pilot, having dropped all his bombs, machinegunned German aircraft on the ground. Just before the R.A.F. bombers reformed for the return journey one dived.to 50 feet, and put bursts into the German ground defences. Only one German fighter appeared. It followed the Blenheims for a mile or two as they flew-home, but only a few shots were exchanged. 'Anti-aircraft fire was intense throughout the action, and some of it, from coastal batteries, followed the formation for several miles out to sea on the return journey. NAZI IMAGINATION.

Once again, a German High Command communique, referring to this raid, has had to resort to a quite fictitious account. The Germans claim that "Through our fighters going up in time and heavy anti-aircraft fire they succeeded in bringing down all eight enemy planes'—three by Messerschmitss and five by anti-aircraft fire." As already announced, only three of the British bombers are missing.

An Air Ministry communique states that R.A.F. bombers yesterday made daylight attacks on the aerodromes of Leeuwarden and Haamstede in Holland. A hangar was hit and enemy, aircraft rnachihe-gunned on the ground. One of the British aircraft is missing.

Bombers during the night attacked synthetic oil plants at Gelsenkirchen, Kamen, Homburg, and Reishblz," near D.usseldorf, the Krupp works, at -Essen, supply depots ait Hamm, Frefeld, and Mannheim, and several aerodromes in north-west Germany-. The damage inflicted on the *il targets is believed to be considerable. All. the British aircraft returned safely.

It is now known that another enemy seaplane was destroyed in combat with a British bomber on Wednesday.

ALMOST A COLLISION,

More detailed information of R.A.F. attacks on the Dutch aerodromes reveals that no enemy fighters were encountered. A British attacking machine emerging from a cloud bank on the return journey just missed a head-on collision with a German bomber. In the fraction of time which elapsed as the aircraft avoided each other the British pilot recognised the other machine as a Junkers 88. He was even close enough to jee splashes of mud on its wings, but so brief was the encounter that neither had time to fire

Reports of the raids on Germany show that in the Reisholz area a British aircraft saw in the distance an enemy aircraft diving to the ground in flames, having been hit, apparently, by the German anti-aircraft barrage. A German communique states: "Two Blenheim bombers were shot down during a raid on Dutch territory. British planes last night again raided western Germany. No .military damage was done, but house property was severely damaged near Cologne, and several civilians were killed or wounded. The enemy lost ten planes yesterday,- and one of ours is missing."