ENEMY AIRCRAFT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 97, 23 March 1940, Page 7

ENEMY AIRCRAFT.

| ACTIVITY OFF BRITAIN. MOKE VESSELS BOMBED. I LONDON, March 21. Intense air activity off the south roait of England during last night is reported. German ’planes appeared near the coast and British fighters and reoJnuaisseurs were observed Hying over thejeonst to the sea. liritish lighter patrols were active aloijg a wide stretch of coast. One enejnv ’plane was reported oxer the Shetland Islands. A mystery ’plane, believed to bo a German bomber, appealed over the south-east coast last nigat and dropped a number of flares antlj fired what were apparently Verov German aeroplane bombed a | Britlish vessel off the south coast last niglff. Four members of the crow •wer* killed and one was wounded and later died. The dead include the chief and' third officers and the chief engineer. Toe Danish steamers Bothnl (2109 tons!) and Viking (1153 tons) bound for Britain without cargo, sank off the | north-east coast of Scotland yesterday morning. Onlv five of the Botbal s crew of 20 and two of the Vikings crew of 17 survived. A lifeboat picked up the survivors from rafts which an K.A;E. ’plane had sighted. Tlie crew of the Viking saw the Bothnl sunk and were launching a boat to go to the rescue when their own ship was blow up. Only two members of the crew of the Viking succeeded in getting on to a raft. Three men from the Bothnl had a remarkable experience when tne raft on which they; had climbed was sucked down as the shin sunk. They contrived to cling to it, however till it reached the surface and wore then able to rescue other members of the crew. VFOUK DANISH VICTIMS. Eire broke out in the British steamer A 1 bionic (2468 tons), believed to he the result of an incendiary bomb, Ihe crew took to the boats, hut the AlTiionic remained afloat and was towed Two more Danish ships, the Algier and Minsk, were Inter reported sunk. Of the four Danish victims L-boats were responsible lor two and the others were lost by explosion, presumably ot mines. The Algier was sunk in the Atlantic without warning. I'our members cf the crew and one woman passenger perished. Nineteen members of the crew and one woman clambered into a lifeboat and were picked up after 1U hours in bitter weather. The Minsk was sunk hv a, submarine off the north-east coast of Scotland. Eleven members of the crew are nnssjng A British warship rescued nine others after 36 hours in a small boat. A report from Amsterdam says that a trawler brought in lour Nazi airmen from a Heinkel which was found float- , im- 130 miles from the Dutch coast. ■ One Nazi had a bullet wound m the , knee and another, a broken lc„. A i British trawler had shot down the , ’plane five hours before, he cron "as rescued by a Dutch trawler. (