BELGIANS JOIN FRENCH

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21676, 10 June 1940, Page 5

BELGIANS JOIN FRENCH

Infantry And Air Force Units British Official Wireless (Received June 9. 6.30 p.m.) RUGBY, June 7. It is authoritatively learned that Belgium has succeeded in transferring to France not only some of her infantry divisions and a cadre of officers, but also, more important at a time when the air arm is playing a decisive role, nine-tenths of her flying personnel and technical staffs. Her air force at the beginning of the invasion included 250 first line aircraft crews equipped chiefly with British material All the Belgian pilots now in France have been placed at the disposal of the British and French Air Forces. The enemy’s numerical superiority has utterly failed to impair the excellent morale of the Belgian Air Force, which now is convinced that the British and American machines and equipment are better than the German, also that its own fighting methods are more effective.

It is also revealed that at 4.30 a.m. on May 10 the Belgian airmen toere not on their home aerodromes, where the enemy expected to destroy them, but in the sky. They attribute their successes in aerial combat gained in the face of great numerical superiority not to any lack of the enemy’s courage. but his inexperience. The pilots in France are eagerly awaiting an opportunity to start again.