DIVE THROUGH BARRAGE

Evening Star, Issue 24081, 30 December 1941, Page 3

DIVE THROUGH BARRAGE

DIRECT HIT ON SUPPLY SHIP (British Official Wireless.) (Rcc. noon.) RUGBY, Dec. 29. As he dived through a barrage or A.A. lire on to an enemy convoy last night, a Hudson aircraft pilot of the Coastal Command (Canadian squadron) heard the rear gunner cry out in pain, says the Air Ministry news service. The pilot pressed the bomb release, and, although ho did not know until later, scored a direct hit on a large supply vessel. Ho pulled out of the dive, and sent the wireless operator back to the gnu turret. The gunner was slumped m his seat, unconscious, having been wounded in both feet. Still under heavy fire from escort ships, the pilot handed over the controls to the second pilot, and went back to attend to the gunner. Helped by the wireless operator, the pilot lifted the gunner from the turret. The crew took off their fur-lined safety jackets, and made a bed on the floor of the Hudson for the wounded gunner. Meanwhile the other pilot had opened the throttle wide, and the Hudson made the journey hack across the North Sea in not much more than half the time usually allowed. The gunner was taken to hospital, and hopes to be back in his turret in a few weeks. As the Hudson crew were making their report, and telling the intelligence officer that they did not know what had happened to their bombs, the squadron commander, who had just landed, walked in. He said: “ You got it all right. I was right behind you, and saw the attack. There was a flash, and then a big explosion on the ship.” MID-AIR COLLISION NEW ZEALANDER KILLED (Rec. 11.50 a.m.) SYDNEY, December 30. A former New Zealander, Vivian Vickers (22), unmarried, a native of Stratford, New Zealand, was killed together with his instructor in an aeroplane accident in southern New South Wales, when two air force training planes collided at 3,000 ft. The occupants of U’e other machine parachuted to safety. Vickers was a grazier before joining the R.A.A.F.