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Aviation History
1941
1941 - 1161.PDF
MAY 22ND, 1941.; |R (Continued) official account says: "One pair ofHurricanes swept across the aerodrome at 100ft. A squadron leader gave ashort burst at a large hangar and saw a brilliant red explosion. An Austra-lian pilot officer, following closely, fired two-bursts at a barrack block andhangars, and another pair of Hurri- canes, flying low over the Belgiancoast, fired at gun posts between the aerodrome and the sea. They silencedseveral and caused casualties to the crews." It is unlikely that explosions. would follow the use of ordinary rifle jcalibre bullets. *' During the period under review thenight flying aircraft of Bomber Com- mand have kept up their hammeringof industrial and military targets in Germany. Mannheim, Cologne, Cob-lenz, Berlin, Hamburg and Cuxhaven, all received their due measure, andCoastal Command had a busy week up and down the Continental coast. From G.H.Q. Middle East comes thenews that German aircraft bearing Iraq markings are landing in Iraq byusing Syrian aerodromes as stepping- stones. A pathetic message fromVichy admitted that 22 of these machines had "forced landed" inSyria. Why the French bother to lie to us in such a transparent fashion isdifficult to understand, since collabora- tion with the Germans is now fairlycomplete. Times must be extremely hard for an honest Frenchman, for hehas neither country, truth nor honour left. A gratifying feature of this newdevelopment is the firm manner in which we have dealt with the situa-tion. R.A.F. machines attacked three Syrian air bases which the Germanswere known to be using. According to the official communique fromCairo: "German aircraft on three Syrian aerodromes, at Palmyra (180miles north-west of Damascus) and iRayak (seven miles east of Beirut),•were yesterday attacked. At Palmyra three Junkers, two other German air-craft and one Caproni were machine- gunned. At least three machines wereseverely damaged, one being burned out. Aerodromes in German-occupiedGreece were also raided by the R.A.F."; ;r"It is, of course, too early to make ENEMY AIR OverG.B. May II •». 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 . 16.. 17 Total in 1 21 1 II 1 35 LOSSES TO Over Europe _ __ 2 — 2 Northern Area: 4,618. about 1,551 MAY 17th Middle East (Incl. Iraq)9 i "i 915 43 Middle East $ SHOWING A LEG : A Hurricane on test at Fort William in Canada where they arecoming off the production line at a rate of fifteen a week. definite statements about the possi- bilities of this new Iraq campaign, but one or two elements which appear favourable to us are present. Rashid Ali seems to have been im- patient and started his insurrection a trifle too soon; we anticipated Hitler and were in Iraq first; all his ship transports from Greece must move over a sea commanded by the Royal Navy and patrolled by aircraft from Crete; the terrain over which the fighting will take place is entering its hottest period of the year, and the surface communications are suitable only for vehicles specially built for the job. With an open flank extend- ing from North Cape to Damascus the Germans are trusting the Russians and Turks more than is justified. Concerted action would immediately rid those two countries of all threats to the Ukraine and the Bosphorus in one stroke. Twenty Junkers Hit TO return to the air war, a limitedoperation by our ground troops was successful in recapturing for us Halfiya Pass and Sollum. R.A.F. units gave the utmost support, in one instance rendering over 200 enemy vehicles unserviceable in 24 hours During the whole battle our fighters kept up continuous ground strafing of the Germans and Italians. Five hundred Germans were captured. During the whole week the enemy's lines of communication through Cyrenaica have been machine-gunned and bombed by day and night. In addition, the Middle East Command bombers have been very active with night raids on the aerodromes at Benghazi, Derna, El Gazala and Barce. After five nights of no concentrated effort the Luftwaffe made a sharp attack on the Midlands. The Ger- mans declared it was Birmingham that was attacked and that a hundred machines were employed in the raid. As an answer to the daylight sweeps over Northern France whichFighter Command have been carrying out lately, several formations ofMesserschmitts attempted the same operation over the South East olEngland on Friday last. For their effort they lost at least seven Me 109s. To end a week full of incident camethe news of the Viceroy of Abyssinia, the Duke of Aosta, asking for termsfor the surrender of his troops in the Amba Alagi area. Thus the EastAfrican campaign comes a little nearer its close. At the same time came acommunique1 from the Royal Air Force in the Middle East telling ofwidespread operations by that Com- mand. In Cyrenaica, Benghazi,Derna and Gazala received their usual visit and large motor transportsupply columns on the Tobruk-Bardia road and on the Capuzzo track weresuccessfully machine-gunned. Road traffic was completely stopped. Dur-ing the attack more than 20 vehicles were completely destroyed by fire andmany others were damaged. A petrol dump was blown up. In Greece our bombers caused anumber of fires at Argos and also at Menidi. At Hassini 20 Ju 52s wereseen to be hit and a number of Me 109s and Heinkels were also attacked.At Argos similar attacks were carried out against enemy aircraft on theaerodrome. Two of them were set on fire and others were damaged.The garrison at Habbaniyeh has been reinforced by Indian troops sent byair. BRITISH AIR LOSSES TO r G B Over Eur°Pe' and the sea Aircraft Pilots Aircraft MAY 17th Middle East (incl. Iraq) Aircraft 2 I ~3 1 2 6 3 2 IS I* Total in Northern Area : 1,964. Middle East: about 221. May II - — ., 12 -13 - . 14 - 15 - 16 I „ 17 2
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