R.A.F BOMBERS

Grey River Argus, 16 September 1941, Page 6

R.A.F BOMBERS

ATTACKS IN FRANCE. LONDON, September 14. Last night a large force of British bombers heavily attacked the docks at Brest. The attack .was mad e in face of fierce opposition from ground defences. Enemy fighters were out to protect the harbour in which the Gneisenau, Scharnhorst and Prinz Eugene are stili lying after months of inactivity. On the way back one bomber met an enemy fighter, probably a Heinkel. Both the reargunner and captain saw it falling towards the sea in flames. The fighter cam e up from behind out of the blur of searchlights, and fired a quick burst of tracer bullets. Nobody in the bomber was hurt, and the only damage caused .was to the trailing aerial, which_was shot away. The Air Ministry says: “Our fighters carried out several offensive patrols over the Channel and enemyoccupied territory on Saturday, and an enemy fighter was destroyed. Non e of ours is missing.” The crew of an American-built Havoc night-flier, flying over northern Fran.ce last night, found themselves over a German-occupied air base, just at the time that enemy raiders were returning says the Air Ministry News Service. In the space of a few minutes, three enemy aircraft were attacked in the air just above the landing ground. One went down on fire and another ’ was damaged. The first attack was made from 75 vards on an aircraft circling the aerodrome before landing , Then another aircraft was seen circling, and the gunner gave it a long burst from onN 40 yaids, and stopped firing only when dazzled by the effects of his own bullets exploding at such close range. Immediately afterwards. a third enemy aircraft was seen, and the Havoc again opened fire. Black smoke poured first from the engine, and it went down to thr> ground, in a vertical dive from 600 feet.

LAST WEEK’S R.A.F. LOSSES. 45 PLANES. 8.0.W. RUGBY, September 14. During the heavy R.A.F. raids last week over Germany and German-oc-cupied territory, which included the biggest attack on Berlin on the anniversary of the start of the blitz on London last year. 33 bombers and six fighters were lost, against eight fighters and one unidentified plane by the Germans. ’ Over Britain, although the German attacks were on a very small scale, three German bombers were destroyed. ' ) In thp Middle East, the Axis and R.A.F. each lost six planes. MR CHURCHILL’S PLANS. TO MOP UP THE GERMANS. LONDON, Sept. 14/ Mr Merrill Meigs, chief of the air-

craft section of the United States Office of Production Management, stated that during _a luncheon in London, Mr Churchill sSid that he hopes to deliver- bombs to the' Germans each morning “with their milk.” He also said that the R.A.F. was trying to deliver bombs to Germany regularly, because he was anxious to co-operate with the Nazis in their liking for planned programmes. The British would later need plenty of tanks to mop up the Germans, after thoroughly pulverising them from the air? >. RUGBY, September 12. A complete armoured division —the greatest military parade of armoured vehicles ever held in Britain —was inspected by the King and the Duke of Gloucester in East Anglia. The King, for an hour and a' half, passed long lines of Valentine and Matilda tanks manned by a famous Lancer regiment and country yeomanrjf regiments, "horse artillery” consisting of twenty-five pounders and an anti-tank regiment, armoured cars, Bren gun carriers, scout cars, troop cars and supply lorries. The roar of tank "engines thundered out over the quiet heath when the whole of the fighting vehicles later “marched past” the King and a squadron of aircraft, which also formed part of the division, dived to within a few feet of the ground in perfect formation. Driving three abreast, the tanks thundered past the base with each commander sitting high up in the turret and maintaining wireless communication with headquarters.