CREWS CAPTURED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20621, 24 November 1941, Page 5

CREWS CAPTURED

GROUNDED PLANES FIRE BY TOMAHAWKS BRIEF LAND FIGHT (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (British Official Wireless.) Reed. 9 a.m. RUGBY, Nov. 22. Not a day’s march from El Adem, the vast Libyan aerodrome which the Italians vacated 10 months ago, is the landing ground of Sidi Rezegh. British land forces, after a short engagement, captured it. On it they found no fewer than 19 aircraft shot up on the previous day by our Tomahawks. They were, according to one pilot, “paraded like soldiers.” So rapid had been the operations by our armoured units that the pilots and ground staffs were still on the airfield, and were rounded up and taken prisoner before they were fully aware of their plight.

Fifty were seized and, still bewildered, put under guard until vehicles were available.

The Tomahawk planes that shot up the landing ground were flown by pilots of a South African squadron. A major described the operations thus: “We expected to find aircraft dispersed all over the landing ground, but they were neatly lined up on one side with one pilot just taxi-ing into position. There was some anti-aircraft stuff flung up at us, but apart from a few bullet holes in the leading aircraft it did no damage. I knew we had rendered most of them unserviceable.”