Phony Planes

Since Nazi bombers have flown in waves over the English Channel, preparing for Adolf Hitler's invasion of Britain, the cliffs of Dover are the world's best press box for newsmen and photographers. There, one day last week, a cameraman from Planet News Ltd., top-flight British picture agency, snapped the biggest dogfight of the war to date in a darkening sky.

U. S. newspapers two days later were offered a unique photograph (see cut), flashed by radio across the Atlantic.

Meanwhile, London newsmen grew suspicious. There a similar photo, slightly different, ran as an exclusive picture in the Daily Sketch. Said Sketch's caption: "Taken at the height of battle [it] shows . . . five of the German planes crashing in flames. . . . Trails of smoke tell the tale." Newsmen went around to Planet's office, demanded the original print, rubbed wet fingers over it. Three of the planes, most of the smoke disappeared. There remained a dark spot which looked like a Nazi raider spiraling down in flames, several other faint specks, some dark streaks that might have been smoke. Reporters who had seen the air battle from the cliffs, two days earlier, were of the opinion that the smoke streaks came from fragments of a burning balloon.

Most irritated by the whole affair were Britain's censors, who had passed the picture before it was retouched, hastened to disclaim it as an official photo. Propaganda-wise, they feared that authentic pictures would be questioned hereafter, that Britain's official air claims might even be doubted.

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