This picture illustrates part of the story of a formation of American-built Lockheed Hudson aircraft, of the R.A.F. Coastal Command, carrying out an action patrol near Borkum, Heligoland, and the- Danish Coast. Five Hudsons took off from an English aerodrome to locate and report on the movements of German warships, in the Heligoland Bight area.
The weather forced the aircraft to fly at 200 feet above the water for a large part of the patrol.
When meat Heligoland, the observer of one machine, peering through the mist, saw a red star shell burst a short distance ahead of him and located the faint outline of a German ship. The pilot opened the throttles and put his Hudson into a steep climb as anti-aircraft shells burst around the aircraft and tracer bullets flashed past on both sides.
The aircraft was quickly out of range. All five machines returned safely with much valuable information,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.