GALLANT ACTION OF R.A.F. AIR-GUNNER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 84, Issue 5, 6 January 1940, Page 9

GALLANT ACTION OF R.A.F. AIR-GUNNER

1 MAIMED BY FROST-BITE, BUT CARRIED ON I FORCED BY WEATHER TO FLY THREE MILES UP. [ British Official Wireless ] RUGBY, Jan. 4. Details have now been, disclosed ol the gallant action of the wireless 1 operator and air-gunner of a Royal Air Force bomber engaged on a re- • connaissance flight over Germany, | who carried out his duties although 1 suffering from frostbite. He is now in | hospital. ■ Weather conditions had forced the ’ aircraft to fly more than three miles i high. The temperature was so low ! that the thermometer dropped below j the minimum reading of 30 degrees , below zero. ' The hands and feet of the wireless | operator became severely frostbitten, • but in spite of the acute pain he con- ; tinned to man his gun and transmit i the reconnaissance reports by wire- ! less. The aircraft remained above ! the reconnaissance area for nearly I half an hour, and for fully 10 minutes ■ i it was subjected to intense anti-air- : craft fire. Paralyses of his frostbitten hands . made transmission of signals impossible, but after several attempts he obtained a series of wireless bearings, i which brought the aircraft safely ( back to its base after a flight of five I hours’ duration. I On landing the airman reported the ; position of two warships, one submarine, and one destroyer which he had sighted. He was then rushed to hospital, where, it is feared, he will lose the terminal finger-joints of his right hand and possibly one finger of his left hand. The Air Ministry announced that from the R.A.F. reconnaissance plane forced down over the Belgian frontier by enemy fighters two of the occupants were rescued from the wreckage suffering from superficial burns, and a third was found killed. Two Nazi Versions. A discrepancy is remarked in Lon- • don between the first German aci count of Tuesday's action over the 1 North Sea, in which two British i bombers were lost, and the later German versions of the engagement. ■ The original German story ae- • scribed how "three British planes ■ were attacked by a swarm of Mes- ; serschmitts and after a short en- ; gagement all were shot down.’’ ! In the later German statement, however, it was claimed that "on the 1 German side only four planes took ' part—not 12 as British propaganda I asserts to construe a numerical superiority.’* i Thus between the issue of tne fiist ' and subsequent acounts the "swarm' i has become only four.