DEVASTATING EFFECT OF NEW ARMAMENT

Southland Times, Issue 24576, 27 October 1941, Page 6

DEVASTATING EFFECT OF NEW ARMAMENT

SUCCESS OF BRITISH NIGHT FIGHTERS (8.0.W.) RUGBY, October 24. The devastating effect of the new armament on British aircraft is illustrated by several recent incidents described by the Air Ministry News Service. A few seconds after a British night fighter sighted a Dornier 17 bomber skimming along the top of a cloud layer, the Dornier had its tail, parts of its fuselage and its wings shot away by the first short burst of fire. Immediately it went into a vertical dive, disappeared through the cloud and crashed into the sea. In another recent successful night combat the pilot and observer of a night fighter reported on landing that pie J.U. 88 which they attacked seemed to explode amidships immediately they opened fire. “There was a terrific white flash aftei’ which we could see the wings blazing as they floated separately down to the sea,” said the pilot. On another occasion when a German aircraft was set on fire by a British night fighter with a single short burst, sections of the aircraft were scattered in the air as it was cut to pieces by the fighter’s stream of bullets.