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Aviation History
1940
1940 - 2217.PDF
AUGUST 8, I940 99 MR in the AIR The Dover Fight : The Red Cross Abused: Sea Gladi- ators : Italian Losses ON Monday, July 29, agreat air battle wasfought over Dover. The Germans attempted a surprise attack on the har- bour in the morning, and sent across thirty Ju. 87 dive- bombers in formations of eight, while some fifty Mes- serschmitts formed a circle overhead in an attempt to protect them. The Germans approached from out of the sun, but the anti-aircraft gun- ners were not taken by sur- prise, and promptly shot down two enemy aircraft. Then squadrons of Spitfires and Hurricanes quickly arrived on the scene, and fol- lowed their usual tactics of detaching one party to hold off the German fighters while r another lot went for the bombers. It would appear from such reports as have been made public that the Spitfires concentrated on the Messerschmitts and the Hurricanes on the Junkers, but any one of them was willing and ready to take on any enemy which came across his sights. The action raged for half an hour, and in that time our pilots shot down seven Messerschmitts and eight Junkers. Two only of our fighters were lost—ample testimony to the superiority of our machines and pilots over the Messer- schmitts, though whether the latter were of the 109 or no variety, or a mixture of both, has not been stated. Dive- bombing on ships in harbour (not including capital ships with heavy deck armour) has been reckoned a deadly form of attack, but the fierce attentions of our fighters put the Germans badly off their aim. The bombs dropped in the harbour and rocked the ships moored there, but no sink- ings have been reported. • ..•••; J-i ^ Fighter Escorts T^HE list of our victories in this combat shows the great advantage which the possession of the French coast has given the Germans, by allowing them to send fighter escorts with their bombers. Certainly the result was not what the enemy must have hoped, but had there been no Messerschmitts overhead, the losses among the dive-bombers would surely have been much heavier. For fairly obvious reasons it must take longer for our fighters to overcome enemy fighters than to shoot down bombers; the reports tell of several instances where our fighters had to break off and swerve away because Messerschmitts had got on their tails. So we may reasonably conclude that had our men been able to concentrate all their energies on the Junkers, a much larger total would have fallen to our A.A. and Browning guns. However, 17 or 18 enemy aircraft in half an hour was not bad going, and as some more in- dividual raiders fell to our fighter patrols in the afternoon, the total bag for the day was 21 German machines. Some details of the fighting were as follows:—Spitfires of one squadron destroyed four Messerschmitts and a bomber. Their success was equalled by pilots of a Hurri- cane squadron who shot down four bombers and a fighter. OVER DOVER OVER : Some of the fighter pilots who took part in the recent fight overDover harbour when some eighteen out of eighty German machines were destroyed in half an hour. The pilot in the foreground is already wearing the D.F.C. ribbon. A Flight Lieutenant in this latter squadron reported that after his attack a Junkers blew up in mid-air and fell into the sea in flames. He then attacked a second Junkers from astern and saw his machine-gun bullets enter the fuse- lage. But he had to break off the engagement when a Messerschmitt got on his tail. A Pilot Officer attacked a formation of 12 bombers flying low over the sea. After a short burst the Hurricane pilot saw the last machine dive into the water. While firing at two Junkers a sergeant pilot "was attacked by fighters. Swerving quickly to meet them he fired a burst at one and saw the German pilot bale out. Another sergeant, after firing two long bursts at a bomber, saw black smoke pouring from its fuselage. A third Hurri- cane sergeant was watching a dive-bomber he had attacked spinning down on fire out of control but he did not see it hit the water as he had to evade a German fighter. A Squad- ron Leader, flying a Spitfire, attacked a fighter and, after watching it go down out of control, engaged a bomber which dived into the water. From the same squadron a Pilot Officer attacked in turn three Junkers ^bombers. He saw one dive into the sea, the second go down on fire, while a third was damaged. It has always been known that pilots of the Luftwaffe have no great enthusiasm for flying over the sea, and, indeed, it must be very unpleasant, even in summer, to have to spend hours in a rubber dinghy waiting for an R.A.F. launch to come out and rescue one—especially if another German machine comes along and shoots up the launch while it is trying to effect the rescue. So, as their casualty lists have grown, it seems that the German pilots have petitioned for ambulance seaplanes to be provided which will go out and look for flotsam airmen. At least, that is the story told by the crew of an ambulance seaplane which was forced down on to the water and finally towed into a British port. But there is a more sinister theory for the appearance of this novel type. These seaplanes, painted white and marked with the Red Cross, have been observed for some time past flying over British convoys 1 few miles from our coasts, and it is officially held that they have been reconnoitring and sending off wireless reports of our shipping movements. H.M. Government have caused the following communication to be made through the proper
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