Evening star., 1941-01-13
4 'Schn1itts in 5 Minutes!
British Pilot Plays Hide and Seek
With Deuth-und Gets His Men
BY CAPT. HI. G. BIARD

BY CAPT. H. c. BIARD
OF the Royal Air Force.
LONDON, Jan. 13 (N.AN.A).-
The R. A. F. could tell thousands OF
stories of the heroism and daring
of squadrons which have equaled,
if not surpassed, the famous "cir-
cuses" OF the last war. But this
time the squadrons are known only
by prosaic numbers.
There is, for instance, the flying
Poles" who have a name, even in
the r. A. F., for bald-headed at
tack.
1t may now be disclosed that
when three Polish airmen were in
training in England and were sent
up in final trials to drop some big
bombs on training target. their
machine was seen to turn north
east and then nothing was heard Of
them for several hours.
Machines went up to scour the
countryside. for it was feared they
had run into a spot of trouble. So
they had-but for Adolf Hitler, not
for themselves!
They had stolen" that training
machine, not armed or equipped for
long flight over enemy country,
and gone over Germany in broad
daylight.
Bombed Strategic Point.
The spirit of Josef Pilsudski, first
President of Poland, must have
flown with them, for they came back
some hours later, just at dusk, re-
ported that they had bombed
certain strategic point in Germany,
and said they were ready to take
whatever punishment was due to
them for breach of discipline.
They had seen Warsaw bombed.
ReichSmarshal Herman Goering had
Dragged at that time that, though
Berlin is only 40 minutes by air
from the Polish frontier, not single
bomb was dropped on German soil.
And these three tight-lipped Poles
decided that no more days could
pass without cleaning that boast of
the slate.
The R. A. F. subsequently had 10
limit petrol supplies to Polish air.
men on bombing practice flights to
prevent the whole of them from fol-
lowing the good example.
Asked to Go Easy.
The squadron first went into
action in mid-August, and they took
part in some of the hottest fights
this war has known They discovered
that the Germans always finch
from headon attack, and several of
them carried this head-on business
so close that it looked as though you
could put a hand between the two
machines at the critical moment,
and they had to be asked to 60 bit
easy with it.
The Polish squadron also had
first of the August squadrons (those
trained in AugusO to do so.
Now, let me tell you the tale of a
flight lieutenant of Hurricane
squadron who made a nap" call.
He had the D. F. C. already and
then went and won bar to it by
destroying eight raiders in eight
days
Feeling that this was rather slow
going, he went up one morning
and shot down four Messerschmitts
in five minutes.
Sighted Is Messerschmitts.
He was leading his Hurricane
squadron over Kent to intercept a
raiding formation when he sighted
Is Messerschmitt 109s. These 109s
were built as fighters. But Goering
lost so many bombers, even when he
sent each bomber escorted by six
or more fighters, that he devised
the bright idea of loading up his
fastest fighters with one or two
bombs apiece and sending them
rushing in where bombers feared to
tread.
1t was the hit-and-run idea of
a madman-a brilliant madman, for
whatever the world says, the r.
A. F. knows Goering has the brains
of fox.
Rising to $4,000 feet, our Hurri-
canes saw that behind the original
IS raiders were so more, stepped
up at different heights so as to
avoid a tail attack.
The flight lieutenant led the at
tack. He saw Jumps of metal flying
from the wing of the 'Schmitt he
selected and dense white smoke
pouring from it. 1t went into a
violent outside spin and crashed.
Instantly he selected another, but
it clipped into cloud.
Saw Another in Mirror.
I'm my mirror I saw another Jerry
zooming up to attack me-" he said
later. so I did tight turn and
opened up on him. He burst into
vivid flame, turned over and went
down."
Spiralling down to $4,000 feet to
make certain that the smitten
enemy did not recover, the fight
lieutenant found a third 'Schmitt
below him, and made as if to land
on its back, giving it a long burst.
Instantly, thick white vapor
poured out of the enemy raider, and
so close was our man at the time
that this vapor logged his wind
screen. AS he pulled aside and
round, the screen cleared and he
turned nose-on to the enemy and
gave him another hot burst.
Fire flickered out of the front of