The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-09-16

be appreciated only by the pilots who participated.
 ITO the man in Spitfire or Hur- ricane. British fighter planeO it was wave after wave of. enemy for- nations coming from the south and east and being broken up and scat- tering to the south and east again, " the conmunique said.
 Not only the famous yellow nosed" German MesserSchmitt planes participated in the battle, but there were "white-nosed, orange nosed and even ree-nosed" craft en- gagged, the ministry said.
 ''They avoided the Spitfires and Hurricanes after what our fighters called the first rush."
 The communique said that the British fighters at one time met 400 planes in little groups of nine ar- ranged threc by three like a ser- geant'S strips" the communique said. Each group of nine bombers would have nine MeSserschmitt no fighter-bonlbers between them and a single scatter MeSserschmitt 109 cir cling up about, as high as 35,000 feet.
 "As these hurricane pilots opened fire they could see another fighter squadron attacking parts of the same enemy air fleet five miles to starboard. Our pilots soon shot down five bombers and five fighter bonn bers.
 "None of the raiders flew much below l5,000 feet and many of them kept as high as 30,000 feet so that this part of the great battle was in clear sunshine at least 4,000 feet above the tops of thick cloud layer.
 Reach Double Figures
 "There were no very large bags of enemy aircraft by single squad rons though some who went up twice reached double figures. Spit fires and hurricanes kept wearing the enemy down and attacking and bringing down Dorniers, Heinkels , and Messerschmitts by ones, twos and threes. They chased them sometimes to the south coast to send them crashing on land or in the sea-"
 The ministry's description of Sum- days fighting was issued as terrific anti-aircraft fire greeted the ap- pearance of German planes over the London area during today's fourth air raid alarm and sent Londoners Scampering to shelters.
 Heavy fire was heard in the direc- tion of the Thames Estuary.
 An air raid alarm was sounded at 9:57 a. m. (4:57 a. m. (ED.T0 as detector forces reported that great fleets of German planes had flown over the southeast coast on the way to attack London.
 Fighter planes were in the air within few minutes. They met the invaders and, it was reported from the spot, had sent them flee ing gack across the English Chan nel within 10 minutes.
 The result was that the "all clear" signal was sounded at 10:32 a. m. in London after an alarm period of only 35 minutes.
 Looks Like Big Day
 It bade to be big day, for Ger man planes were reported in force over northwest and southwest Eng land.
 Yesterday, too, had been big day. for German planes were re- ported in force over northwest and southwest England.
 Yesterday, too, had been big day. Fleets of as many as 200 German planes each had attacked the Lon- don area four times. The "all clear after 6 night of raidinS led not been sounded until 5:37 a. m. today.
 It was the most costly day of the war to the Germans in their attacks on the British Isles--185 planes, of which 131 were bombers, against 25 British planes of which the pilots of 12 were known safe.
 In the biggest previous day, Aug ust IS, the Germans had lost 180 planes.
 It was probable yesterday that the Germans lost more planes than of- ficially claimed, because usually some damaged planes crash on the way home.