Huge Air Battle at Hankow Described by Japanese Fifty Soviet-máde planes and one Curtiss-hawk pursuit plane.of the Chinese air force were shot down in Friday's raid on Hankow by "more than 50" Japanese naval aircraft, a naval spokesman here confirmed yesterday morning Of the Soviet-manufactured machines, 45 were said to have been of the 1-15 type and five of the newer and faster 1-16 pattern.
Two Japanese machines, the spokesman said, failed to return to their has "Abgut 30" Japanese pursuit planes and "about 20" bombers participated in the raid, which was described by the spokesman as "the biggest air battle of the current hostilities."
In addition to destroying most of the 80 Chinese planes which met them in combat, the naval raiders were said by the spokesman to have set the. Hanyang Arsenal on fire in three different spots.
Some of the bomb: were said to have landed in the vicinity of the arsenal, The air battle, which lasted for about half an hour, was accompanied i by intensive anti-aircraft fire,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.