RAIDS ON ENGLAND

Grey River Argus, 5 June 1942, Page 3

RAIDS ON ENGLAND

WEDNESDAY NIGHT (Rec. 12.10.) LONDON, June 4. On Wednesday mgnt a small force of enemy oomoers were over Engiana. Ewe German ’planes were destroyed on Weanesday night, four over bases in northern France. SOME CASUALTIES. (Rec. 1.15.) LONDON, June 4. , The Air Ministry reports tnat enemy ’pianes were over the sout: coast or England last night. Bomos droppeu at one point caused some aainuge ai_..i a small numoer of casualties. One enemy plane was destroyed over isngiand ana four over France. / LONDON, June 3. Smalt numbers of German planes were over South-west England on Tuesday night. Bombs were dropped in several places and small fires were started. There was some damage, and a small number of casualties. Other bombers were .reported over the Thames Estuary. A single raider approached the London area, causing an alert, but no bombs were dropped. No bombs have fallen on Lonaon since last July. Three raiders were destroyed in England and one near its base in Holland. REPRISAL RAIDS. LONDON, June 3. The Germans are making desperate efforts to bolster up morale, by asserting that they are returning blow for blow. The attack on Canterbury was magnified into a mammoth raid, described as a reprisal for Cologne. The Luftwaffe raiiK tens of thousands of incendiaries, in addition to high explosives, said German propagandists. That bomb damage and fires should be caused

an ancient closely confined cathedral city is natural, but only 25 to 30 planes took part, and four were shot down.

LONDON, June 1. A storm lifted a Hamp'den aircraft of the New Zealand Torpedo Bomber Squadron 1500 feet in three seconds during a recent flight over the Atlantic in search of submarines. The plane was piloted by Pilot Officer J. H. Reason, of Morrinsville and members of his crew were Sergeants A. E. Collett, of Wellington, and F. MacPherson, of Rotorua, who is a Maori. The second navigator was a Scotsman.

Pilot Officer Reason said: The trip so far holds a record for the squadron’s worst weather. We knew we could expect bad conditions. We took off in pouring rain. The sea was calm but the weather gradually worsened. Freezing level was 5000 feet. We were flying blind about 200 feet above the sea, when we ran into the dirtiest and blackest cloud I have ever seen in my life. All instruments suddenly seemed to go haywire. I felt the aircraft lift and shoved the nose down at least 30 degrees from the horizontal, but in a matter of about three seconds, the. aircraft was lifted 1500 feet by the storm’s terrific force. I fought the controls for a while, then we came out of a tiny hole m the clouds, and saw dirty big breakers rising from 40 to 50 feet. We returned safely after blind for more than four and a-quarter hours. In the course of the operations, they had not seen any submarine.-:, but some shipping and had a few encounters with enemy aircraft, rum Officer D. J. Nillson of Hastings, encountered a J'unkers 88. Each aircral. is equipped with an all-important dinghy, and also carries two pigeons for release if forced down.