Berlin, Dec. 19.
The German High Command claimed last night that 34 of 44 Royal Air Force planes were shot down by German pursuit planes and antiaircraft batteries yesterday when the British planes "attempted to raid" the Heligoland area.
Germany lost two' planes in the giant aerial battle but the crews of both planes escaped by parachutes, the communique said.
The High Command admitted that geveral British planes reached Wilhelmshaven, vital German naval base, and dropped three bombs. No damage was suffered by the German Navy, however, the announcement said.
The British raiders, the communique said, concentrated their activity over the North Sea in the neighbourhood of Heligoland Bay. German pursuit planes were said fo have engaged the raiders in several sharp battles over the inner Heligoland bight..
In addition to those British planes shot down, the announcement said, the Germans were not counting other possible British losses." Several wrecked R.A.F. planes already have been washed ashore on Frisian Island, the communique said.—United Press, "That" says the Admiralty "is the true story of the sighting of the Bremen by a British submarine. It contrasts strongly with the reports that have been circulated by the German radio and which are not sub. stantiated by a single fact."
Rather less than 24 hours after the Bremen had passed, the statement goes on, the British submarine sighted two German battle cruisers, the Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau, and one pocket battleship, with three cruisers in company. Two of the cruisers were the new eight-inch gun ships the Hipper and the Blucher, and the other was recognized as the Leipzig.
At first it appeared the British sub. marine would be unable to do more than report the fact that the German ships were at sea for they were steering so that they would pass a long way from the submarine.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.