SPECIAL ro THE "kept London, Feb. 25.
Royal Air Force planes carried out more ' reconnaissance flights over Heligoland Bight and North-West Germany yesterday, the Air Ministry announces. The British aircraft repulsed a number of attacks by enemy fighters, it is reported, and returned home safely after' completing their task, One British plane fought off attacks by five Messerschmidts.
it is learned that in the Royal Air Force flight over north Germany on Saturday night, planes flew over Kiel, Hamburg ànd Bremen.
German claims to have shot down British and French aircraft yesterday are-ofücially denied here. Referring to the Berlin toment on the number of Allied and neutral merchantmen sunk, it is stated that according to unofficial figures, the number of British, French and neutral vessels destroyed up to February 20 was 308.
A British steamer, the Royal Archer, 2,266 tons, sank off the Scottish coast yesterday afternoon. It is stated she struck a mine and was being taken in tow by two tugs when she foundered. Fourteen members of the crew were injured, Seven were detained in hospital, The British steamer Jevington Court (4,544 tons), which escaped undamaged when attacked by German warplanes recently, has been sunk by a mine. The crew landed today at &n east coast port, The Danish steamer Aase, 1,200 tons, was sunk while bound from in to Britain. A lifeboat with the cabin boy, who, was much. exhausted, and the body of the first officer ran on the British coast yesterday. The remaining fifteen members of the crew are missing.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.