London, Feb. 26. AN, authoritative description of the air battle over the Heligoland Bight yesterday between R.A.F. aircraft and German planes states that a British bomber was attacked from above, from the left and from astern by five Messerschmitt fighters of the No, 109) type.
Despite the enemy's superior speed, and the fact that it was hit six times by machine-gun fire and that one of the British' machine-guns was virtually out of action, the bomber succeeded in evading its pursuers.
It returned safely to its base with valu~ able photographs previously obtained over enemy territory.
All members of the crew escaped inj jury.
A remarkable flight has just been made by a pilot of the Coastal Command, according (6 an Air Ministry communique, "The pilot, who was one of the last to be awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, brought his plane and crew safely home after a three-hour crossing of the North Sea with a broken rudder which was damaged os the pilot dived to attack a Dornier near the Norwegian coast. The Dornier was too badly damaged to take ad-Vantage of the situation, The British machine vibrated vio-tently and would not fy straight, but varying the revolutions of his two engines the pilot got his aircraft headed for a base on the east coast. The crew opened the cabin door and had their parachutes and rife-jackets ready. After being unable to, communicate with the base for two hours, the crew learned to their astonish: ment that they had flown across northern England ina blackout, and were over the Irish Sea, Finally, the machine landed crashing and straight Since February 22, there had come to the knowledge of the British Government 128 eases in which unarmed British merchant ships. and Ashing vessels had been attacked by German aircraft, stated the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Mr. R.A. Butler, in reply to ques: tions in the House of Commons today. Mr, Butler added that vessels were being armed for their own pro=
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.