BITTER FIGHT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20209, 30 March 1940, Page 7

BITTER FIGHT

DORNIER CRIPPLED BRITISH PLANE RIDDLED LIMPS BACK TO BASE HEINKEL SET ON FIRE (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (Reed. March 29, 2.50 p.m.) LONDON, March 28. Behind the attack on Dornier bombers by an aircraft of the Coastal Command while on a reconnaissance flight over the North Sea lies the story of half an hour’s bitter fight and the British pilot’s hazardous return to his base with the port engine out of action, the tanks riddled by bullets and with petrol streaming away. The British plane swooped down on the Dorniers 160 miles from land with his guns spitting. The pilot said: “We concentrated on the hindmost Dornier. The rear-gunner climbed into the gunpit. He was a young fellow. We opened up and got him. He fell forward and hung over the edge. We swooped several times and smoke poured out from the Dornier and we much doubt whether it got home. They riddled us with bullets.” A Heinkel raider burst into flames in mid-air when it was shot down by Hawker-Hurricanes of the Royal Air Force Fighter Command off the northeast coast of Scotland on Thursday afternoon. The German pilot was diving to escape one section of Hurricanes when he was caught by another section. Before the first attack, the Heinkel was flying above the clouds at 10,000 ft. Three sergeant-pilots closed in with bursts of machine-gun fire. The Heinkel dived steeply through the clouds, but below the clouds at 7000 feet fighters from another squadron intercepted and engaged the enemy. The Heinkel fell, bursting into flames before it reached the water. The decisive bursts of bullets were fired by the pilots of a squadron which had not before shot down a raider.