THE WAR

Patea Mail, 24 November 1939, Page 2

THE WAR

TO GO ABROAD | FIRST N. z. CONTINGENT LEAVING AT END OF TRAINING k The dispatch of the first echelon for/.®! service overseas, and the appointment 1 by the King of .Alajor General B. C. "■ Freyburg to take command of the New Zealand Forces overseas and tf:e retention of Alajor General Duigan’s services within the Dominion w-ere sub- % jects of a statement by Air. Savage .„»■ yesterday. 16 GERMAN PLANES DOWNED IN PRANCE RAIDERS SWEPT FROAI THE SKY A special correspondent of the As-. sociated Press of Britain on the AVestern Front says that Allied fighters swepr German raiders from the skies yesterday* shooting down seven, while anti-aircraft |-uns destroyed a total of nine. *i, . ILLEGAL FLIGHTS ' REPEATED VIOLATIONS HOSTILE RECEPTION GIVEN A Gorman mil lit ary machine crashed in Dutch territory while attempting a forced landing. The pilot was killed. It is officially- stated that Duck antiaircraft guns fired cn the. machine before it crashed. The aeroplane, which was broken in three parts, was partly- buried beside the River Roer with the body- of the 18-ycar-old pilot leaning out of the cockpit. The Amsterdam correspondent of the 'Bimes says reports from Berlin state that when /Dutch aircraft chased a, German seaplane from Vlieland recently-, one of the German pilots was wounded. In Berlin it is aemi-offieially stated that one German pilot was seriously wounded in an encounter with a Dutch machine on Snuday. It is denied that the German machine was inside Dutch territorial waters. WARNING FROAI -.GERMANY According to the riowspaper Excelsior Germany- has sent a Note to Belgium and Holland not to attach German machines flying ove* their territory, otherwise she will take immediate measures to counter aggression. The Notes are reported to have asserted that the Nazis have not opposed with force Allied control of the Belgian and Dutch shipping, and for that rea- f son Germany claims the right to fly over their territory. Authoritative circles at the Haguc, however, emphatically discount the report of the German threat as circulat- > ed in the Excelsior. PROTEST BY SWITZERLAND The correspondent at Berne of tho Associated Press of Great Britain says that Switzerland has protested to Germany against German anti-aircraft shells falling in Basle recently, when German anti-aircraft batteries fired on. a French machine. The German Minister apologised for German aeroplanes involuntarily violating'Swiss air space, but added that the violation of the frontier by shells was not mentioned by 1 his Government. The Paris correspondent of the Times says that German machines are making a practice of violating Belgian, Dutch and Swiss neutrality. German troop concentrations are still being maintained dose to the- Belgian and Dutch frontiers. A message from Basle says the Swiss Army announces that foreign aircraft repeatedly- violated Swiss territory on Friday and Saturday last. Several machines were identified as German. Gorman leaflets were dropped while Swiss anti-aircraft guns opened fire. .