DAY AND NIGHT

Waikato Times, Volume 131, Issue 21750, 9 June 1942, Page 3

DAY AND NIGHT

GREAT AIR OFFENSIVE SUCCESS OF BRITISH NAZI PLANES DESTROYED (Omcial Wireless) (Received June 9, noon) RUGBY, June 8 Keeping up the day and night offensive against the enemy the Fighter Jommand last month destroyed 52 nemy aircraft on Hie other side ot he Channel, 42 in daylight and 10 at .light. Thirteen more were shot down in daylight round Britain and 21 at night, making a total of 86 enemy aircraft destroyed during the montn. The 31 enemy bombers destroyed at night represent a very much high_r rate ol success than the enemy night defences achieved against the Royal Air Force in their heavy raids an Germany. By the end of last month the Fighter Commands had raised the total enemy aircraft destroyed in daylight since the outbreak to 4365. For the Coastal Command May was a most successful month. Many German vessels of all types were hit by bombs and either sunk or damaged. Blast furnaces in the Ruhr are going short because the iron ore for them is lying at the bottom of the North Sea. . Destruction on Continent An Air Ministry communique states: In large-scale offensive operations over the Channel and enemyoccupied territory Bostons, with a strong fighter escort, attacked the docks and other objectives at Bruges. Four enemy aircraft were destroyed. Six of our lighters arc missing, but. two pilots are safe. The Air Ministry news service, referring to the raid, says it ranged over a 130-miles front from Bruges to Dieppe. At Bruges the Bostons bombed the docks, a factory and the railway, while Spitfires swept in from Dieppe to Dunkirk in a semicircle 30 to 40 miles in depth. One force of Spitfires operated in the Ambleteuse-St. Omer-Mardyck area, while another swept from Dieppe to Abbeville. They destroyed three FWl9o’s and severely damaged at least a dozen others. Two pilots of the Second American Eagle Squardon accounted for the three destroyed. One Spitfire formation had a dogfight with 30 FWl9o’s almost above the St. Omer aerodrome, but cloud prevented them from seeing what was almost certainly the end of a number of enemy planes. Another Spitfire squadron was pounced on over the Channel by 30 FW’s, but fought its way out, damaging one enemy aircraft. Two. British pilots who were forced to land in the Channel were rescued.

Last evening a Royal Air Force fighter shot down an enemy bomber into the sea off the south-west coast of England.