A.A. Guns Have Downed Over 1000 Raiders

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 96, 23 April 1941, Page 8

A.A. Guns Have Downed Over 1000 Raiders

BRITISH SUCCESSES RUGBY, April 21. British Army anti-aircraft guns have destroyed more than 1000 enemy aircraft since the outbreak of war. The total has been brought to thi3 figure by recent successes fh the Middle East, and notably at Tobruk. It includes only certainties, and takes no account of damaged ones which crashed unobserved on the way home. A plane fatally winged at a great height over London, for example, may very likely clear the coastline before it falls. Five hundred enemy planes have been definitely shot down by anti-air-craft guns in the British Isles, and many others at Malta and in the Middle East. Most of the anti-aircraft gunners who have done this admirable work have received all or nearly all their training since the outbreak of war. Their achievement shows that this comparatively young branch of our artillery maintains the high traditions of a Royal regiment in its skill and devotion to duty. Equal pride in the result may be taken by the workers in the factories which produced the guns, predictors, shells, and other scientific equipment on which the batteries depend.