GREAT COMBINED NAVY AND AIR ACTION

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 68, 25 March 1929, Page 6

GREAT COMBINED NAVY AND AIR ACTION

MIMIC BATTLE OFF SPANISH COAST A THEORETICAL ATTACK. AIRMEN PERFORM DARING FEAT* (Received Noon.) LONDON, March 24. Probably the greatest combine:! navy and air action yet 1 seen occurred yesterday afternoon, when tho entire Atlantic and Mediterranean Fleets participated, including pT the first occasion four aircraft carriers, i There was a grand battle off tne coast of Barcelona. The ocean suddenly became aj_ bewildering mass of ships, and the air became peppered with aircraft. The pageant far exceeded any air operations seen ashore. The aircraft carriers loosed plane after plane, and within a few mi*-

Sites six flights swept over the Repulse to meet the enemy. Immediately the opposing guns blazed out, but 1 the aeroplanes, with magnificent) impertinence,, swooped down on the barrage, loosing tor-

pedoes and bombs. It was necessarily a theoretical attack, the result 1 of which was not even conjecturable until the data is examined, but many aircraft were shattered to pieces and many ships were also victims.

Eighty aircraft participated in a magnificent spectacle of diving within a few yards from the bridges of the great battleships, dropping torpedoes. They flew almost tip to tip throughout and scampered likewise to the carriers. As the ships cunningly altered their course to mislead the attackers the ships often engaged both ships and aircraft simultaneously.

Incident's were crowding one another, and it was impossible to keep pace with the progress. -Australian Press Assn., United Service.