RECORD GERMAN LOSSES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 84, Issue 191, 15 August 1940, Page 5

RECORD GERMAN LOSSES

ONE PLANE A MINUTE 400 MACHINES IN BATTLE LONDON, Aug. 13. German losses to-day were a record. At one stage during the attack on Portsmouth German planes were crashing at the rate of one a minute, rour hundred planes took part. Targets to-day included Southampton, Isle of Wight, and the counties of Beishire and Wiltshire. In Southampton tires were started and there were civilian casualties, some fatal. R.A.F. aerodromes in the south-east were at* tacked, there being casualties, some fatal, at one. Mass attacks were made soon after dawn on aerodromes and shipping along the south and south-east coasts. By noon it was evident that for the third day in succession R.A.F. fighters were exacting a heavy toll. The morning air battle lasted nearly an hour. More than 100 enemy planes were engaged, including 35 Dornier bombers and a formation of Messerschmitt fighters. Many bombs fell, but there were no casualties and little damage. Fifty bombers in three formations on er a south-east coast tow n in the morning droppea 10 high explosive bombs and incendiary bombs in a straight line across the town, demolishing four houses, a public hall and bus station and damaging other houses. Hundreds of windows were broken. Enemy aircraft came in three waves directed at the Southampton area and Kentish coasts. Anti-air-craft gunners, by shooting down three more, brought their successes in the last two days to 10. bq..adron's Record. In the Southampton area alone fighter patrols destroyed 22 of the enemy. Nine of these were Junkers dive bombers, five were Messerschmitt 110 fighters, and the remaining eight were Messerschmitt 109 fighters. All nine Junkers were brought down in rhe space of minutes by a single Spitfire squadron as well as four of the Messerschmitt 109 fighters. Not a single one of this squadron s pilots or Spitfires have been lost in two days’ actions. They destroyed seven enemy aircraft yesterday. One of the successful pilots during the early fighting was a Pole who escaped after the overthrow of his country and travelled back to fight with the R.A.F. One R.A.F. pilot tells how just after one action was over he saw several pilots swimming m tne water. They were picked up by launch. He circled above them as thev climbed into a launch. He recognised threj of them as Engli. .i and one as a member of his own squadron. A bomb completely wrecked a house in which an elderly couple were asleep. The man extricated his dead wife and is not expected to live. A Spitfire was seen to engage a bomber which plunged into the sea. A serond Spitfire tackled another bomber and pursued it into the clouds, pouring in bullets. The result was not seen. Only a few were injured. apar f from th'* couple mentioned. For First Time Som n English towns were raided for the first time to-day. Explosions in one centre caused much damage. Successive formations of dive-bombers substantially damaged one thickly populated area, and a salvo cut off the walls of a row of dwellings like a knife. Hardly a window was intact in the whole district, doors hanging from their hinges and fragments of glass, tiles and slates Uttered the streets. A surgeon was beginning a critical operation when a raid began. A bomb exploded a few yards from the eperating theatre but he carried on and successfully finished the operation. A big heath fire was among the outbreaks resulting from the bombing. The killed included two women in an A.R.P. shelter which was directly hit. A legless oid man in an invalid’s chair was among five injured when a bomb was dropped in front of a parkland shelter. Twelve high explosive and 70 in-

cendiary bombs fell in two small towns in the Midlands. One formation put out a smokescreen extending 15 miles. Rounding up Pilots It has become a full-time job for many men on service rounding up pilots and gathering up wreckage of German planes shot down over widespread areas. The pilot of a bomber badly damaged by anti-aircraft fire tried to land in a field. A young bombadier rushed out from a hedge v.ith a Lewis gun and peppered the bomber. Three bodies were later taken from the plane, one believed to be a 24-year-old German count. A German airman in another district walked down a road to meet a Home Guard. Another was found asleep rolled up in a parachute and two others were sitting on the ground. Civilian passers-by pouncec. on a pilot who landed in the middle of a street. Naval boats went six miles out to sea to rescue Germans brought down in the Channel. The battle extended for miles. After 100 enemy planes crossed one section of the southeast coast another 70 bombers and fighters appeared at dusk. Many bombs fell in open country and others in the sea.