HURRICANES ON EASTERN FRONT

Southland Times, Issue 24593, 15 November 1941, Page 7

HURRICANES ON EASTERN FRONT

RUSSIAN PILOTS FLY

MACHINES (8.0.W.) RUGBY, November 13. Hundreds of Hurricanes are now being assembled for service on various parts of the Eastern Front and the personnel of the Royal Air Force Wing are engaged in instructing the Russian pilots. The armament and the serviceability of the Hurricane fighters are much admired by the Russian pilots, who are on the average older than the Royal Air Force pilots. _ Our pilots, states the Air Ministry News Service, have been greatly impressed by the determination .of the Soviet pilots. Recently a Soviet pilot returning from a raid rammed an enemy aircraft and escaped by parachute. The enemy air crew also baled out ana were promptly engaged on the ground by the Russian pilot in hand-to-hand fighting. He killed them all and then walked five miles over snow-covered tracks and hills to his base. Although the aerodromes will, be snow covered throughout the . winter the Hurricanes will not need skis fitted to their under carriages. Experience has already shown that they can land easily on aerodromes that are rolled regularly. The members of the Royal Air Force Wing have been elated recently by the arrival of the first letters from home since they arrived in Russia. The first Russian to fly a Hurricane in the eastern war zone is the 40-year-old major-general commanding the northern Red Fleet Air Arm. An aircraft bearing the Soviet red star on the wings in place of the red, white and blue roundels was presented to the general. After a brief instruction from one of the Royal Air Force pilots he took off. A Hurricane flight-commander with the Royal Air Force Wing reports an unexpected encounter with German raiders. The Hurricanes were using a flying field close to the line when they were warned of the approach of 14 Junkers 88 s with an escort of Messerschmitt 109’s. The Hurricanes were in the air on their way to intercept the raiders as the enemy appeared in the sky. The British flight-commander engaged a Junkers 88 and had left it wobbling into a cloud when he saw some aircraft forward and above him. They were flying in and out of the cloud and he took them for another flight of his squadron. He radioed “I am joining you” and manoeuvred into line with the other aircraft. They were executing a turn which he had almost completed with them when he was amazed to see that they were six Messerschmitt 109’s. One of the enemy recognized the intruder at the same moment and peeled off to attack him. The Royal Air Force pilot had also broken off from the strange formation to get room to manoeuvre. He gave the oncoming attacker a head-on burst of machine-gun fire which sent the Messerschmitt down in a screaming dive. Other Hurricanes then streaked up to aid the truant and the enemy broke away.