MILLION MILES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 August 1940, Page 3

MILLION MILES

COMPLETED BY BRITISH - AIR SQUADRON. OBSERVATIONS BY LEADER. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY. August 5. The commanding officer of a coastal squadron which has just completed one million miles' flying in Hudson (Ameri-can-built) aircraft, described in a broadcast talk today something of the work which his squadron has been carrying out. A million miles, as he said, was a long way, and he calculated that enough petol had been used to send a fleet of 400 family cars right round the world. The squadron had been employed on reconnaissance, though when enemy aircraft were encountered they had to act as fighters as well, and not infrequently when occasion arose they would be required to do bombing also. Every day, under every sort of weather conditions, they went over the North Sea to find out what was happening on the other side, and valuable photographs and information were brought back. A good deal of U-boat hunting had been done in the early days of the war. and the total number destroyed' by his squadron was “quite impressive.”

Concluding, this officer said: “There is no doubt about it, our Hudsons arc first-class aircraft for the job of reconnaissance.” Though the enemy fighters naturally had an advantage over them in speed the Hudsons carried very useful armament, and could “take an enormous amount of punishment." He was amazed sometimes at the condition in which occasionally the aircraft managed to return to their bases.