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Aviation History
1941
1941 - 0015.PDF
JANUARY 2ND, 1941. WAR IN THE AIR (Continued) stationary, and mostly unarmed, vessels off the shore were a target for which eager bomber pilots must hope for in dreams but very rarely see. Both ships and men should have been exterminated. They -vere not. The Fighter Command was thrown into the fray, and such toll was taken of the German bombers that the great majority of the B.E.F. was saved. Without detracting from the part played by the Navy and by the little private ships (which was heroic), the victory was due, so the Prime Minister said, to the Fighter Command. Air Attack versus Air Defence '"PHE next stage was a clear-cut duel between air attack •*- and air defence by day. The Luftwaffe bombers were hurled against Great Britain with the greatest violence. The defending fighters shot them down in almost fantastic numbers. Fighter escorts were then sent with the bombers in ever-increasing proportions, but still the eight-gun fighters continued to hold the country safe. The verdict was definite. Both fighters and bombers will have to be very different from what they are now if this verdict is ever to be reversed. It looks as if it could only be reversed if the escorting fighters outclass the defending fighters. It is for Britain to see that that never happens. But the ^cteaign of the machines was not the only cause of the vic- tory. The careful training of the men, both pilots and mechanics, must not be forgotten, nor the whole organisa- tion of defence, with very efficient observers and with A.A. gunners who steadily improved with practice. We may also hope that Great Britain will never again in future wars be raided from French and Flemish aerodromes. If bombers have to start from farther afield they will not be able to have escorts of short-range fighters; and long- range fighters ought always to be inferior to those which the defence can put up against them. British designers may be trusted to see to that aspect of the case. The war against the Italians does not seem to have pro- vided any definite lessons, because the Italians do not seem to have their heart in the struggle. Few of their machines have been of the latest pattern, and the British obsolescent Gladiator has been too good for them. At times Italian pilots have fought with courage and skill, but on the whole the ascendancy of the R.A.F. has been most marked. The Fleet Air Arm has also covered itself with glory by its actions in the Mediteranean. So the year ends with night bombing on both sides, and neither side has any efficient defence against it. That it will never cause the British to sue for peace we feel assured beyond any possibility of doubt. Hov^ far the British bombing effort will help to bring nearer the time of Ger- many's defeat we do not know. The year ends with one purge question nowhere near an answer. More Aid for Greece AIR VICE-MARSHAL D'ALBIAC, British Air Officer "^ Commanding in Greece, stated on December 21 that the R.A.F. there was expected to be increased as soon as the weather improved, when large-scale air operations would begin. Valona had been raided eighteen times and Durazzo eight times. The Italians had transferred their planes from the Albanian front to Libya as the result of the British thrust there. In a review by the Air Ministry of the R.A.F, operations in support of the Western Desert offensive it is recorded that from December 7 to 19 the enemy lost at least 144 aircraft. Eighty-eight were definitely destroyed in the air, and 56 were seen to be destroyed on the ground or cap- tured. British losses during the same 12 days were 13 aircraft, with five pilots saved ; and during the five days December 15-19 inclusive there were no British losses. In an air battle over Argyrokastro on December 21 nine British fighters engaged 50 Italian machines, of which eight were shot down for certain and probably three more. The R.A.F. lost two aeroplanes. AIR LOSSES TO DECEMBER 28. Dec. 19„ 20 ., 21 , 22 • 23 , 24 . 25 . 26 . 27 , 28 GERMAN Aircraft 5 3 1 1 1 — II ER/T/5H Fighter Aircraft Pilot. _— — 1 _ - — 1 0 TAUAN Aircraft 1 24 i netudtng 19 onground) 9 41 1 2 1 2 52 BRITISH Aircraft 2 4 — 6 British bombers lost over German territory : Dec. 21 I ; Dec. 22, I Dec. 23 I ; Dec. 26. I ; Dec. 27, 2 ; Total. 6. The Admiralty has announced that the following number of enemy aircraft hu been destroyed by H.M. ships, naval guns in Norway, shtps of the Allied Navies and defensively armed merchant ships from the beginning of the war to December I, 1940: destruction confirmed, 192; destruction unconfirmed 91 ; damaged, 100. The Germans have lost since the beginning of the war 4,181 machines destroyed by the R.A.F. and ground defences. They have destroyed 1.708 British machines. The Italians have lost 473 machines destroyed by the R.A.F., and have destroyed 73 British machines. Total enemy losses, 4,846 ; total British losses, 1,781. The fight on December 21 occurred when the R.A.F. attacked Italian bombers escorted by a large number of fighters which joined in. During the fighting one British pilot was seen to make a parachute jump, and an Italian machine followed him towards the ground machine-gunning him as he fell helplessly and inflicting wounds from which he has since died. Venice as a Landmark T^HE Royal Air Force has not been guilty of the crime •*• .of bombing Venice, but Venetians must have had a fright on December 21, when a force of heavy bombers attacked Porto Marghera on the mainland not far from the railway bridge which crosses the lagoon to Venice. There are docks and petroleum works there. Even to reach Milan requires great skill in navigation and great powers of endurance. The journey to Venice set many new problems and a pilot has described exactly what this unprecedented voyage meant. He said: "As we crossed the French coast the searchlights and the heavy flak were after us. At the same time we could see that some of our bombers were raiding the Channel ports. Eventually the anti-aircraft guns stopped firing. When we were approaching the Alps we had to climb several thousand feet in a short time. I hadn't gone up very high before because I wanted to save our store of oxygen. We flew over the Alps at 17,500ft., and the temperature was minus 30 degrees. One of the navigator's hands seemed to be frozen stift, and I lent him my pair of silk inner gloves. He'd had frost-bite about two months before. I sent him back to pump some oil out of the auxiliary tank into the main tank to warm himself up. When he had done this and taken some more oxygen he was all right. Crossing the French Alps it was still dark and the moun- tains looked menacing, but the aircraft was going so well that we knew we were safe above them. Twenty minutes latei we were near Venice The moon was just getting up; it was shining under the mist and showing red, and at first we thought it was a fire. We didn't fly over Venice itself, but we used it as a landmark. Everything was very clear. We could see black lines that might have been streets but as this was Venice we knew they were canals. We made our run up on to Porto Marghera from the sea. The first time I wasn't satisfied, so we went round again. At times we were under fairly concentrated fire. There was a big salvo just about the time one of our bombs would have burst and this prevented us from seeing the result. We circled round for five or ten minutes and then the wire- less operator sent through a signal saying ' operations com- pleted.' We then headed for home."
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