LONE BRITISH RAIDER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24738, 15 October 1941, Page 5

LONE BRITISH RAIDER

NAZI WARSHIP-ATTACKED DIRECT HITS WITH BOMBS (Rec. 8 p.m.) RUGBY, Oct. 13. Returning with great audacity to a second attack before the delayedaction bombs dropped in the first attack had time to explode, the pilot of a Hudson aircraft of the Coastal Command to-day put out of action a German war vessel in a Norwegian fiord. The Hudson came upon the vessel lying in a sheltered position in a fiord. It was considerably larger than a British corvette, and nine of its guns fired at the aircraft as it came in. The Hudson made its first attack at mast height, scoring two direct hits with delayedaction bombs, then turned sharply and flew in for a second low-level attack with its guns. The guns of the German warship, which were putting up a consistent heavy curtain of anti-air-craft fire, were silenced one by one in rapid succession by gunfire from the Hudson crew, and as the guns on the ship were put out of action the bombs burst with heavy explosions amidships. The air-gunner who silenced most of the Germans’ guns did so by sticking to his own guns after he had been twice wounded in the head. The aircraft returned safely to its base.