RUHR AGAIN BOMBED

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 July 1942, Page 4

RUHR AGAIN BOMBED

SUPPLY SHIPS ATTACKED “PADDY” FINUCANE -KILLED LONDON, July 18. It is officially stated that Lancasters bombed objectives in the Ruhr in daylight, to-day, It is understood there was some opposition from enemy fighters, but none of the Allied aircraft is missing. Later, Hurricane bombers and Spitfires attacked an enemy convoy off the Cherbourg Peninsula. One supply ship was left listing, and on fire, and another supply ship and two escorting ships were damaged. One Allied aircraft is missing. An Air Ministry communique states that aircraft on the Bomber Command continue to lay mines in enemy waters. Two aircraft are missing from these operations. An Admiralty communique states: “A Focke Wulf 109 was destroyed yesterday afternoon by gunfire from a motor-launch in the English Channel. Two launches were escorting a single merchant, ship when the vessels were attacked by four enemy, aircraft. Four of the launch’s crew were wounded.”

Allied fighters destroyed a German fighter off the French coast. A British fip'hter destroyed an enemy bomber off the east coast 'of England this afternoon.

POWER STATIONS HIT

RUGBY. July 19

A Lancaster bomber returning from yesterday’s daylight raid on the Ruhr was attacked by two German fighters, near the Dutch coast. The bomber shot one down in Hames. Boston bombers attacked objectives in the Lille-Bethune area, this afternoon. while many squadrons of fighters swept the French coast. Full details of the bombing are not. yet available, but it is known that the power stations at Cheques , and Mazingarbe were hit. British fighters destroyed one German fighter.

Two Bostons and one fighter arc missing. A new kind of flak was used by the Germans against British aircraft off the Breton coast .this afternoon, the Air Ministry News Service says. Hurricanes, escorted by Spitfires, attacked two enemy ships off the island of Les Triadoz. A hit was scored on the bridge of one vessel. When a new type of minesweeper was attacked, new and fierce anti-aircraft fire was also encountered. One pilot said it came up vertically, was white, and looked li|<e rockets. SOUTHLANDER’S VICTIM

LONDON, July 17

Squadron Leader R. D. Yule, D.F.C., of Invercargill, shot .down a Focke Wulf 110 when flying a Spitlire in a wing sweep over Cherbourg. It was one of three Focke Wulfs sighted at 26,000 feet. Squadron Leader Yule’s squadron was ordered to attack. He got one, and another was damaged.

FINUCANE KILLED

“MILLION TO ONE CHANCE

LONDON, July 18

A “million to one chance” shot from a machine-gun on a beach near Point du Touquet killed Wing Commander Brendan (“Paddy”) Finucanc, D. 5.0.. D.F.C. and two Bars, who had 32 aeroplanes to his credit. Wing Commander Finucane was leading his wing during the largest mass attack of fighters yet carried out against targets in France, and Hew over a machine-gun post low. A gunner got in a lucky shot, which penetrated the Spitfire’s radiator. Wing Commander Finucane, alter attacking his target, turned for home. He was too low to bale out, and the engine was firing too slowly for the aircraft to regain height. He tried to crash-land on the sea, but instead of his Spitfire staying afloat for a few seconds, it sank like a stone, carrying him with it. The crash must have knocked him senseless). Comrades circled over the sea for a long time afterwards. All they saw was a slowly widening streak of oil on the Channel waters. The station commander, who listened in to the radio telephone conversations between the Spil/>re pilots, said: “Paddy did not know he was hit until his No. 2 called to him to tell him.” Wing Commander Finucane he- said, went on to attack his target. Soon afterwards Wing Commander Finucane said his engine’s temperature was going up and that he was coming out of France. He continued to talk calmly over the radio coming home. FI is last message—probably as the engine stopped—was: “This is it, chaps.” A. Canadian, Pilot Officer F. A Aikman, avenged the death of Wing Commander Finucane. “I saw a small machine-gun post perched about 2(1 feet above the beach on a ridge,” said Pilot Officer Aikman. “It was not an orthodox German gunpost, but just one machine-gun on a tripod, with two soldiers. It had no emplacement and no sandbags. We were, almost on the post bofo”e Paddy realised it was there. The two soldiers opened at point-blank range. The first burst penetrated Paddy’f starboard wing and radiator. I was flying behind and to tne right ol Finucane. I took a crack and when the dust settled down there was nothing to be seen on the sand. I gusssed that my fire blew the post to pieces.

“Paddy did not know that he had been hit until I radioed him. I followed him out and saw him open tne sliding hood, and just before he crashed I saw him take off his helmet. He was doing something else, probably releasing his parachute harness. I called him up again and told him that I was going to climb in order to be able to fix his position when he crashed. He was obviously unhurt, and he replied: ; Get as high as possible.’ He was flying about 10 feet above the sea just before crashing His aeroplane hit the sea tail first, nt had obviously intended to ditch it. We were then about 10 miles from the French coast. I think he tried tc put as much distance aes possible between himself and the Hun so as to have a better chance of being rescued by our boats. “I imagine that what happened was that as his Spitfire hit the sea he was rolled forward in th? cockpit and knocked unconscious. 1 circled at 5000 feet watching the spot. He did not come up, and all I saw was a streak of oil on top of the water. The whole thing was a miserable piece of bad luck. It was a shot in a million that hit his radiator. Paddy was not beaten by the Luftwaffe. It was a ground shot that got him.” i RAIDS ON ENGLAND. RUGBY, July 19. Enemy aircraft dropped bombs early on Saturday morning at a place on the southern coast of England. Some damage was caused. There were a small number of casualties.

A lone enemy raider swooped from clouds early on Sunday and dropped a stick of bombs on an East Anglian town. It then machinegunned several streets. The bombs damaged property and caused some casualties.