INTREPID AIRMEN

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 132, 6 May 1941, Page 5

INTREPID AIRMEN

BREST AGAIN SUFFERS.

NAZI CRUISERS STRUCK. (United Press Association—Copyright)

(British Official Wireless.)

(10.20 a.m.) RUGBY, May 5. An Air Ministry communique describes among- many operations successful attacks on the German warships Gneisenau and Seharnhorst in Brest-harbour. The communique states: Taking advan t.ige of good weather over the west coast of Franco, strong forces of aircraft of the Bomber Command last night again attacked the enemy battlecruisers which are still at Brest. Many heavy bombs were dropped t'nd hits were observed on ana very near the battle cruisers. . Docks on both sides of the harbour were hit and largo fires started. Smaller forces attacked the docks and shipping at Rotterdam, Antwerp and Le Harvc. Near Antwerp a direct hit was obtained on an enemy supply ship of about 1500 tons."^

In the course of a daylight sweep carried out yesterday by aircraft of the Bomber Command, an enemy patrol vessel was hit' and left sinking. Aircraft of th-3 Coastal Command last night bombed the docks at St. Nazaire (in the Bay of Biscay) and started several fires. Other aircraft attacked the docks at Cherbourg and the aerodrome at Qucrquevillc (near Cherbourg.) About dusk last evening coastal aircraft "on-patrol bombed an enemy supply ship of about 3000 tons off the coast of Norway and attacked other objectives in south Norway.

None of our aircraft is missing from all those operations.

NAZI WARSHIPS TRAPPED

Over the extreme west of France the sky was clear last night and a bright moon shone down on Brest, where successive attacks by the R.A.F. continue to confine the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, states the AitMinistry News Service. When their last Atlantic sortie ended late in March, the two cruisers made for the shelter of this port, there to be refuelled and to-munition ship. These tasks can be normally completed in 24 hours. The presence of the battle-cruisers after five weeks suggests either that by' a coincidence they have each developed some grave defect while at sea or, what is far more probable, that Brest has proved to be a very poor shelter from the persistent bombing of the R.A.F. If of late there has been a certain sense of monotony in the report of the attacks on Brest, it may safely be said that the monotony is fully shared by the Germans.

Last night aircraft of the Bomber Command carried a great load of heavy armour-piercing bombs to Brest. An occasion thin ground haze drifted across the harbour, but the battlecruisers and surrounding dockyard showed up clearly under the moon and the pilots report very accurate bombing. Direct hits on both arc claimed. Sticks of the heaviest bombs also fell repeatedly across the dry dock in which one of the vessels is berthed. Many bursts, accompanied by flames and smoke, were observed on and about the jettv where the other is tied up. Oiie aircraft made a dive attack on one ship, going down to 2000 ft. before he pulled out and dropped his bombs.

GREAT DAMAGE DONE. The attack was concentrated rather than prolonged. It began shortly before midnight, but, in the two hours that followed great damage was done, not only in the neighbourhood of the battle-cruisers but among the docks and quayside buildings on both sides of tho harbour mouth. Columns of smoke and the red glare of fires were left behind. Among other aircraft operating further north, one had a successful encounter with an enemy vessel. The pilot was about to attack two small boats off Antwerp when, in the moon, light, he saw a larger prize He circled round to find a supply ship of 1500 tons. The pilot said: "I came down to about 20ft. above the bridge of the ship and we let go our bombs. T thought we had missed, then a searchlight from the shore suddenly obliged us —i n its beam we could sec columns of thick smoke going up from the ship to above 500 ft. There was no doubt we had scored a direct Int." NIGHT FIGHTERS BUSY.

11 A F night fighters again last night carried the war into the enemy's country ta-klin ' raiders aoovc their own base-in Northern Prance as well as over Brfitain. One raider shot down was an ME 110, a type used more oltcn in day-time than at night It was sighted by an R.A.F. fighter pilot and set on fire. One Sergeant-pilot had two encounters on a single patrol. He came across the first raider and with several short bursts sent the anemy diving down with one engine on fire. In the second fight ho saw sparks flying irom the engine and fuselage, but because of cloud was unable to sec it the bomber crashed. . Another pilot discovered three bombers living together. Picking out one of them ho closed in. Alter two bursts he saw the enemy aircraft, a Junker 88 catch fire and dive into the sea. One of the crew baled out over the water. Gunners on the coast tired at an enemy bomber which had been caught by searchlights and saw one shell hit the tail of the machine. Royal Observer Corps men say they saw the same plane going out towards the 'sea, losing height rapidly and on fire. Another bomber crashed after antiaircraft guns had opened fire. The crew baled out and wore captured. FROM NORWAY TO BRITTANY. Aircraft of the Coastal Command took advantage of the moonlight last niHit to harry' the enemy Irom Norway to the coast of Brittany, states tlv> Air Ministry News Service. A German supply ship of 3000 tons anchoring in the Skagerrak in a convoy was bombed and hit a few minutes after midnight by a Blenheim machine, the pilot of which made Three runs over his target. Clouds of black smoke belched from the ship s bows Other Blenheims on the same patrol straddled a second supply .ship with bombs and attacked docKs in Southern Norwav. The gunner of a B enhcim which 'reconnoitred Stavanger shot out three troublesome searchlights. Blenheims also bombed Qucrquevillo aerodrome, near Cherbourg, and hit the barracks. When another Coastal Command squadron attacked the docks at St. Nazaire in a few minutes there was a great rectangle of fire in the naval base. Incoming pilots saw a scries of explosions and added their bombs to the havoc. HAVOC TRUE TO NAME. An enemv fighter was shot down in Kent bv anti-aircraft guns shortly before dusk on Sunday evening. Two R A F fighters were lost during the (lav's patrols, but both pilots are sale. Three sergeants who form the crew

of the American-built Havoc fighter brought off the "hat trick" on Saturday night when they shot down their third enemy raider on their third trip over enemy territory. Saturday night's victim was a Junkers 88 bomber which the Havoc crew caught flying near its base in northern Franco Struck by a burst of fire from the Havoc's front guns the raider blew up in mid-air. Four nights earlier the same crew flying their Havoc over enemy territory for the first time shot down an enemy aircraft which attacked them over northern France. Or. the :.ext flight over France three nights later they accounted for their second enemy bomber after diving on it at 300 miles an hour and scoring hits with their front guns. The 'aider then blew up and the Havocwas hurled upwards by the blast of the explosion. The three sergeants arc in their twenties.

Other notable incidents in Sunday night's brilliant defensive operations abound. Oik; wing-commander destroyed two enemy aircraft in a single patrol. A flight-lieutenant- from another squadron having shot down one bomber was about to open fiie on a second when it burst in flames and crashed. A night lighter squadron-leader, who had already brought down ton German aircraft at night, increased his score to eleven An Australian pilot, with a Now Zealander as air-gunner shot down a Dornier over North Wales after attacking and severely damaging a Junkers 88 over the Merseysidc. The combats took place within '2O minutes. It is officially stated in Berlin that several hundred planes participated in Saturday night's raid on Liverpool.