BOMBER SHOT DOWN

Grey River Argus, 18 May 1944, Page 3

BOMBER SHOT DOWN

BY N.Z. "COBBERS” WELLINGTON, May 17. New Zealand pilots of the Fleet Air Arm who completed their training together and met again when they were appointed, recently, to the same squadron, in an escort carrier, "H.M.S. Biter,” celebrated their ye-union by shooting down a Junkers 290, states an Admiralty release. They are: Lieutenant (A.) Erik Sven Erikson, R.N.Z.N.V.R., of Waiuku, and Lieutenant (A.) William Clifford Dimes, of Wellington, who came to England together in 1941, to join the Fleet Air Arm. It was while "H.M.S. Biter” was escorting a large convoy in the Atlantic that a Junkers 290 reconnaissance bomber was sighted. The aircraft launched a glider bomb which fell into the sea, near the convoy. The Junkers then continued to shadow the convoy? Despite a heavy sea, which sometimes made the flight deck of the carrier rise and fall as much as thirty feet, Erikson and Dimes took off in their Wildcat aircraft. Describing the action, Erikson said: “We both saw the enemy soon .after taking off, but he made for a cloud and we lost him for a time. Ten minutes, later he broke cover about five miles away, and this time we gave our aircraft all they had, to intercept before he reached the shelter of some rain 1 clouds ahead of him. By the time we were in .a position to open fire, we had reached the fringe of the cloud and rain had reduced visibility to about half a mile. I got in a burst at 400 yards. Almost at the same time, I saw the enemy’s tracers flashing over my port wing. I saw his port outer engine catch fire, .and. i as I pulled away, Dimes attacked from the starboard quarter. This I diversion must have caught the Ger- ( man air gunners off their mark, for i no further retaliation was made, .and | the Junkers was lost in the cloud.; When he emerged, a few seconds! later, his engine was stopped and on fire, and he appeared to be losing height. I was able to fire another short burst at point blank range, before his wing collapsed and he dived into the sea.”