ODDS AGAINST FLAT.

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 93, 21 April 1941, Page 7

ODDS AGAINST FLAT.

BATTLE ON FRIDAY

VICTORY NOTWITHSTANDING

(British Official AVircless.)

(Received April 21, 12.50 p.m.)

RUGBY, April 20.

Operations in Greece last Friday in which ten German aircraft were destroyed and many others seriously damaged, are described by the Air Ministry news service.

Fighter pilots of the R.A.F. sought out and destroyed enemy aircraft in a number of offensive patrols. One Hurricane squadron ran into 10 JU87's escorted by -a large formation of MElo9's. Against odds of something like four to one, the British fighters went into battle. When, bullet-scar-red but still at full strength, the squadron returned to its base, a young pilot officer gave a brief description of his part in the encounter.

"We arrived over Pharsala area to find a lot of German fighters escorting JUB7's, which wers dive-bombing an army convoy," he said. "One seemed to be intent on his dive, but when I got on his tail he altered his mind and tried'to slip away. My first burst set him on fire. The German air gunner opened fire on me, but I got in another burst. After that the bomber dived straight to earth and crashed on v hillside.

"The next instant I caught sight of another JUB7 and got undei'neath and fired into his radiator. My second burst from astern sent the bomber nose-down, and there was black smoke pouring from his engine."

The difficult conditions under which the allied airmen are operating are illustrated by the remark of one pilot who said he did not follow a German plane which was shot down because the "clouds were full of mountains."