R.A.F. COASTAL PATROLS

Southland Times, Issue 24011, 29 December 1939, Page 5

R.A.F. COASTAL PATROLS

Minor Encounters In North Sea

GERMAN VESSELS BOMBED (British Official Wireless) (Received December 28, 6.30 p.m.) RUGBY, December 27. There were minor encounters in the North Sea on Wednesday between Royal Air Force Coastal Command aircraft and enemy aircraft and surface craft. . One of the British aircraft encountered a Dornier bomber and registered several hits with machine-gun bullets. Another British aircraft was in a series of head-on combats with a second Dornier. In the latter stage of the encounter the German bomber was attacked with bombs dropped by the British pilot as he dived towards it. The bombs only narrowly missed their objective. When a third Dornier came on the scene the two German aircraft flew in a tight circle to bring crossfire from the front and rear guns to bear against their British opponent. This manoeuvre was broken by the steadiness and accuracy of the British gunners, who observed that a number of bursts found their mark on each of the Dorniers. Each German aircraft that accepted combat was damaged and silenced, but there were no casualties to any of the British aircraft or their crews. Near the German coast one British coastal aircraft sighted two enemy destroyers and four patrol vessels, which it attacked with bombs. Later the same aircraft saw seven more German patrol ships close to their base, The pilot made dive attacks and estimates that he made at least one hit. A bomb fell on the stern of a vessel which was seen to be disabled. The other German ships put up a heavy fire against the British aircraft, which, however, returned undamaged. With its undercarriage and wingflaps out of action as a result of enemy antiaircraft fire, a Royal Air Force bomber returning from a reconnaissance flight over the north-west German coast

made a safe forced landing at. an English aerodrome at night. The pilot ordered the crew to land by parachute and brought the bomber down alone. The crew scattered over the countryside. Local residents first mistook them for German spies until their identity was established. A British Official Wireless message says the hazards of routine reconnaissance which falls to the lot of the Royal Air Force are illustrated in the story of how the aircraft reached home and made a safe landing. Landing presented great difficulty, because of the danger it involved both to the crew and possibly also to civilian lives and property. The pilot officer solved the problem successfully. He ordered the rest of the crew to descend by parachute, and, after assuring himself of their safety, succeeded in landing the aircraft without any further damage..

U.S. PEACE MOVE NOT LIKELY

Ambassador In Berlin

Necessary

NO INDICATION GIVEN OF APPOINTMENT

(United Press Assn—Telegraph Copyright) (Received December 28, 9.20 p.m.)

NEW YORK, December 27.

Despite recent moves by the President (Mr Franklin D. Roosevelt) it should not be assumed that a peace move is imminent. The first indication of such a move may be the filling of the vacant ambassadorship in Berlin, which Mr H. R. Wilson vacated as a protest against the November purges. Questioned on the prospect of an appointment to Berlin, the presidential secretary, Mr Stephen Early, admitted that it would be logical to have an ambassador if Mr Roosevelt were making a peace move, but the Washington correspondent of The New York Times has at present no indication of such a move, although, should conditions change generally, it is assumed that the President would throw his influence towards peace, perhaps in association with the Pope. The correspondent adds that it was presumably to learn the implications of Mr Myron C. Taylor’s appointment to the Vatican that the British Ambassador (Lord Lothian) .conferred with the Secretary of State (Mr Cordell Hull) today. After conferring with Mr Roosevelt the Rev. Buttrick Adler, president of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ, declared: “We all are in agreement and available for further conferences, which is regarded as further evidence that a peace move is not planned.”

BRITISH PRISONERS ON GRAF SPEE JOURNEY HOME ON LINER

LONDON, December 27.

A message from Montevideo states that the five British captains and 65 seamen who were held prisoner on the Admiral Graf Spee when she put into that port have now embarked for home on a British liner.

It is also announced that the flag in which the captain of the pocket battleship, Captain Hans Langsdorff, wrapped himself before committing suicide was the old Imperial emblem, not the Nazi flag.