AERIAL WARFARE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23620, 2 April 1940, Page 7

AERIAL WARFARE

DORNIER DISABLED ATTACK BY SPITFIRE PILOT'S FIRST ENCOUNTER By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright (Roceived April 1, 5.5 p.m.) British Wireless LONDON, March 31 A Dornier raider was caught napping by a single Spitfire of the Royal Air Force Fighter Oommand far out over the North Sea to-day. When last seen from the Spitfire, the Dornier was flying low over the water in a disabled condition. The Spitfire, with one other fighter from the same squadron, was on patrol shortly after noon off the Suffolk coast and was flying at a height of about 16,000 ft., when the pilot sighted what seemed to be an enemy aircraft 1000 ft;. below. The pilot recognised it is a Dornier, but to his surprise the enemy did not appear to see him. Slipping astern of the Dornier, he fired two bursts of machine-gun bullets. The German pilot, awakening to his danger, stalled and went into a steep dive of 15,000 ft. down to sea level. The Spitfiro pilot followed, watching as he dived the German gunner fired for 10 seconds without effect. At sea level the Dornier flattened out and flew eastward with black smoke pouring from the starboard engine and with the starboard wing down. The British pilot had not before? been in action with the enemy. His first experience was as satisfactory as that of his brother, who is also his SquadronLeader, who last month, also in his first engagement, carried out a similar dive of about three miles to bring down a Heinkel over the mouth of the Thames. British fighters drove away enemy aeroplanes approaching the Shetland Islands to-day, says a Press Association message. No bombs were dropped. One aeroplane, believed to be a German, was also seen in the Orkneys and was driven off by anti-aircraft guns. CANNONS FOR AIRCRAFT BRITISH EQUIPMENT ADVANTAGES REVIEWED LONDON, March 28 In a broadcast from the Western Front, a British Broadcasting Corporation observer said the Royal Air Force, which was fitting cannon to its aircraft, was the last of the three Air Forces engaged in the war to do so. British and French aircraft experts weighed the advantages of machineguns and cannon, and decided that, at this transitionary stage of the war in the air at least, the arguments favoured the use of cannon, the observer said. "The main argument in favour of the cannon is that it has more power, and therefore can do more damage," he continued. "The main argument against cannon is that the equipment and ammunition are heavier than those of the machinegun, and where two cannon are carried on an aircraft three or four machineguns must be removed. Many airmen believe that eight machine-guns on an aeroplane make the machine more effective than two or three cannon. "Since the war developed, however, the use of armour-plating on German aircraft has been adopted more widely, and, with the use of armour-plating and bullet-proof glass, there is a tendency for the effectiveness of the aeroplanes equipped with machine-guns to diminish." While a number of British aeroplanes have been hit by high-explosive shells from German aircraft and have returned to their base with only a large gaping hole in their fuselage, a •Messerschmitt has been completely blown up by one shot from a Frencli aeroplane's cannon. The French Government will soon begin the mass production of a new first-line fighting aeroplane of a type which in recent contests has shown itself to be superior to the German Messerschmitts.