THRILLING ENCOUNTER

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21192, 15 August 1940, Page 8

THRILLING ENCOUNTER

ENGAGEMENTS IN THE AIR RAIDERS BROUGHT DOWN PARACHUTING CREW CAPTURED (United Press Assn.—Elec. lei. Copyright) (Received August 15, 3.15 p.m.) LONDON, Aug. 14 A Spitfire shot down a German bomber in the southwest of England this evening. The crew of five parachuted and were captured. The bomber came from the direc- i tion of Wales with the Spitfire on j its tail. The Spitfire delivered its final attack over a village and the villagers ; surrounded the crew. A German bomber fell into the; sea off Wales tonight after receiving sharp machine-gun bursts from three Spitfires. Three other bombers flew over a Welsh town, but were driven off into the clouds by anti-aircraft batteries. Another raid was made with little damage. A south-eastern town was twice raided, and the second raider started a fire. One Dornier and two Messerschmitts crashed a few miles from each other in open country during a mass south-eastern raid. Crew Machine-gunned Eye-witnesses of a German attack on a lightship saw dive-bombers dive low. Each bomber skimmed the deck and released two bombs, one of which scored a direct hit. sinking the lightship and drowning two of the crew. Others were machinegunned while in the boats. Hurricanes chased the bombers away. One plane is believed to have come down in a south-east town early this evening. Soon afterwards four machines engaged in a dogfight over the Channel. A Messerschmitt twice circled a station in another south-eastern town and harmlessly machine-gunned a street. Bombers dropped six bombs on a third town in this area, killing a member of the Home Guard and wrecking three houses. A Royal Air Force squadron leader, in emphasising the conservatism of the British claims said: “My squadron one day claimed only eight planes, but I swear that I saw at least eight falling at one time. I believe we shot down about 24. Bombs on Junkers Factory

The vast Junkers factory at Dessau, less than 60 miles from Berlin, which, j as stated in Wednesday evening’s j Air Ministry communique, was attacked by the Royal Air Force on Tuesday night, is one of Germany’s main centres of aircraft production. The works were systematically bombed by relays of aircraft for over an hour and were heavily damaged. Numerous direct hits with heavy calibre bombs scored in many parls. of the target area, and the crew of one aircraft whose bombs fell in a line across the main buildings report that one had hit and destroyed the main power-house and others had severely damaged the air-frame assembly sheds and a large sheet metal shop. In another attack delivered from a height of only 1000 feet one of the experimental shops was directly hit and blew up. Meanwhile a subsidiary Junkers factory at Bernburg, where airframes for Junkers dive-bombers and troop transports are produced, was being attacked. Salvoes of high explosives and incendiary bombs were seen to burst c.nd flare up within the target area.

A line of bombs exploded across the aerodrome which adjoins the works and part of the building was struck by a heavy bomb and went up in a shower of debris, which could nlainiy be seen by the crew of a lowflying bomber. Munition factories at Lunen and Grevenbroich were also attacked and in both cases fires were started by incendiary bombs. Other Factories Hit Bombs were also dropped during the night at other factories at Mun-chen-Gladbach, where four direct hits were scored, at Frankfurt, Kochem and on a blast furnace some 20 miles north-east of Cologne. Low cloud and haze prevented the observation of results of an attack on a large oil refinery at Hanover. Railway yards about 25 miles north-west of Osnabruck, where goods trains were assembled and despatched, were raided in the early hours of the morning.

Fourteen enemy aerodromes in Germany, Holland, Belgium and France, ranging from Dekooy in the north to Brest in the south and extending as far east into Germany as Magdeberg, were also raided in the course of the night’s widespread operations.