By Sea and Air

Some 250 miles southwest of Portugal, enemy aircraft spotted an important Allied convoy, bound for Britain. Next morning the enemy attacked with submarines, followed up with heavy bombers, rocket-glider bombs. Through four days and three nights the Germans displayed their newest air-and-sea tactics.

Under Water. As many as ten submarines bunched against the convoy never broke through escorting Canadian corvettes, British frigates and sloops. Focke-Wulf 200s and four-engined Heinkel 1775 flew out from French bases to launch radio-controlled glider bombs (British sailors call them "Chase-Me-Charlies"). Flak from the ships, Allied Fortresses, Liberators, Hudsons, Catalinas, Venturas, Sunderlands, fought off the attackers. One British pilot said that the glider bombs looked like small monoplanes and performed "most unusual acrobatics." But they were ineffective: at the battle's end, only two Allied ships had been damaged, none had been sunk. The attackers had lost one submarine, another probably destroyed, several aircraft shot down or badly damaged.

The British released details of their "Leigh-light planes"--long-range night-fliers equipped with searchlights. One caught a submarine on the surface, damaged it with depth charges.

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