Three Night Raiders Shot Down

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 2, 3 January 1941, Page 3

Three Night Raiders Shot Down

HAWKE'S BAY PILOT TELLS A thrilling story

How tingle handed he accounted for two German planes at night, a feat that earned him the Distinguished Flying Cross, and how subsequently he shot down a third, is described by a Hawke's Nay pilot in the K.A.F. in a recent letter to his parents. His narrative shows notable modesty as to his own efforts, but nevertheless it provides a graphic picture of tho measures taken to combat the deadly night-bomber over Britain. The letter also reveals tfca tenacity, courage, unawareness of personal danger, and singleness of purpose trhen in pursuit that is the make-up of the R.A.F. fighter. “On the night it all happened I was sitting in the mess ‘ off duty’ and was just thinking of going to bed when one of the boys rang me up and asked me if I would like to fly because they had all flown twice and were darned tired. Of course I said yes,” he writes, when outlining his feat that earned him his decoration. “I took off at about 10.30 at night, and ,wjls just climbing above the aerodrome. when I saw a lot ot ' searchlights on a Hun a long way nhead. ‘ ‘ Off I set in pursuit, but then the tearchligbts lost. it. and I was looking tound for the. aerodrome when I saw an ©♦her Hun-lit up by the searchlights above me. Up I.climbed after him. He was about 15,000 feet, and I was about 50.000 feet up at the time. While flying up after him I happened to spin three times, because I was so keen to get up there quickly in case the searchlights lost him. One is lucky at night if one sees a Hun that is not in the searchlights. “Eventually I got up there and wa* about 300 yards behind so I gave him a Jive-second burst of machine-gun fir? and I could see some of the tracer bul lets going into him. At. that, the Hun drew away and suddenly disappeared out of the searchlights. So I went, on looking about for him for about five minutes, when I saw another Hun in the searchlights. Off I-went again and fired several bursts at him from about 250 yards and also got a good deflection ehot in. Then I drew up to about 15 yards and flred the rest of my round* into him. and then he started falling to pieces. Then I lost him and saw him no more, t Dernier aed a Heinkel "AH this time I had no wireless beta use it had ‘packed-up’ quite early. IWhen I landed I was told that they had both been confirmed. One was a pomier 17 and the other a Heinkel 111. [That was on a Wednesday night and on Sunday morning following I got my b.F.C. t‘‘All the time I was engaging them I ot no return fire, which was a good Bhow. I was only in the air for one hour 45 minutes and the actual combats were over in very short time. By God. though, while they were on I got terribly excited and just thought of getting them down. I think that why I jgot the D F C. was because I got them t>oth at night, and both while I was on the same patrol. "I inspected the Heinkel 111 next day. It urns in a shocking mess. Tt amazed me that I myself could have done so much damage. I must, say that lit was grand fun while it lasted.” The pilot goes on to mention that on another night, about 10 days later, he was ffying round at about 5000 feet at nbout midnight when he was a Hun lit •up by searchlights about 13,000 feet Bbnve, so off he climed after him. going •'flat out” with everything wide open. It look about 20 minutes to climb up to him and to catch him “I then got up to abdut 100 yards and drew up to about 10 yards away from him," he writes. I fired air my rounds onto him in one burst, which lasted about. 15,seconds. It only-reemed to both his engines smoke, so T ,P<ept close in behind him. hoping that ilhe would go down, but he was only : Jlcsing height very slowly. Suddenly he '■dropped two colossal bomb*, which altmost hit me, I was so close. "Then he started to fire at me with fcis rear gun as hard ag he couid. He absolutely filled my machine with holes and shattered” my . windscreen, which lluckily was bullet-prpof. If it hadn't been I . wouldn’t be writing this letter. Lots of bullets just ” missed me by inches. Then after a long time he suddenly burst into flames, and blew iup with a colossal explosion when he hit the ground and burnt for quite a -time. When they found the wreckage (next morning there was nothing left of lit except a lot of burnt, twisted metal. "I was glad when the fight was over, because. half the things on my aircraft would not work, and also my eyes were full of glass spliqters, and I could hardly see. My eyes aje all right again now*, but for days afterwards I kept on fishing pieces of glass out of them. Ne Thought of Personal Danger "Apart from that nothing exciting {has happened at all. In all those combats I got so excited that I din't think of any personal danger, but just thought of shooting the other chap .down whatever happened. It really was thrilling while it lasted. •We have been working hard lately because we go up every night that we can and try and stop the Huns bombing London.— which is easier said than done. It is cold up there at nights at 15,000 feet. It is generally about 20 to '24 degrees below zero (centigrade). Sometimes we get so cold that you almost cry with the pain. The trouble is that if you put on too many clothes it is impossible to move about, and turn everything on and off. Still we manage •to keep going and we are always glad to get down.”