Less Air Raiding

Grey River Argus, 10 February 1942, Page 6

Less Air Raiding

IN WESTERN EUROPE. 8.0.W. RUGBY, February 8. During the night, an enemy plane dropped bombs at a point in southwest England, states a communique. There was slight damage, but no casualties. An Air Ministry communique states: In the course of searches for enemy shipping by aircraft of the Coastal Command, to-day, a supply vessel was found and bombed off the Norwegian coast. Two of our aircraft are missing from the day’s operations. Twenty-three years old Gunner Leonard Beader, manning a Lewis gun at a South Coast searchlight site, shot down two Junkers 87 (Stukas) dive-bombers, in two minutes. Bearder, who is a lance-ser-geant. was recently awarded the British Empire Medal for courage and straight shooting during the Battle of Britain. Bombs fell within 10° yards of his machine-gun post, and bullets spattered across the site, but Beader keot on firing until the raiders were driven off. A strong force of Stukas had crossed the Channel for a daylight attack on coastal targets. Thev were being chased back by British fighters when they passed over Bearder’s post at a height of about 600 feet. “There were between 20 and 30 Stukas,” he said, “and when they came over us thev began milling round like seagulls. T picked out one that was broadside on, and started firing. I could see the tracer bullets ripping into it from stem to stern. It lost height at'

once, and swooped towards the sea. I picked out another target, but had fired only* about 15 rounds when I saw a third Stuka heading straight for us, and swung round on him. The Stuka staggered, turned, and started for home—right along the line of my sights. I just had to hold the gun steady and keep the trigger back. He got every bullet. The German gunner baled out. but was too low. His parachute did not open in time, and he came straight downward, and was killed. From start to finish, the whole show did not last more than a couple of minutes.” The Air Ministry states: While on patrol off the Belgian coast, a British fighter pilot destroyed a Dornier bomber shortly after dark. He was flying low when he saw the Dornier approaching hea'd-on. He gave it a short burst of fire, then it turned on its tail, and, with another burst, he set it on fire. The starboard wing hit the water, and the bomber crashed into the sea. A ' medium-sized enemy supplyship was severely damaged on Sunday in a swift daylight attack by a Hudson of the Coastal Command, off the south-west coast of Norway. The Hudson s’ghted the ship sailing m convoy. The pilot went down m a dive to drop bombs, and pulled up just in time over the mast. Seconds later there was a big explosion. The ship listed so far to port that the rear-gunner could see the red paint on the under part of her hull.