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Aviation History
1941
1941 - 2082.PDF
144 FLIGHT SEPTEMBER IITH, 1941, WAR IN THE AIR NOT SO EASY AS IT LOOKS. The bomb aimer of a Short Stirling gets ready for business. damaged over 1,000 enemy aircraft since the beginning of the war, of which 543 have been certainly de- stroyed. The guns on merchant ships and fishing vessels have accounted for 55 of these. The naval vessels of oui Allies have shot down 12. These naval figures do not include the enemy machines shot down by our naval forces during the Crete battle, but it is known that the numbers were quite large. The ships were too busy to keep count of all the Stukas and others which they destroyed. The Killers Naturally the Fighter Command of the R.A.F. has done most damage to the Axis aircraft,, and in the two years of war it de- stroyed 4,500 enemy machines. The term Fighter Command includes the anti-aircraft guns which work under the orders of the A.O.C.-in-C. During 1941, so far as it has gone, the Command has accounted for over 3,000, of which 380 were shot down at night. The totals of the Fighter Command do not -include German machines shot down over Franoe be- fore the Dunkerque evacuation or dur- ing the Norway campaign. If only we knew how many of the '' probables '' really failed to get home, our record would certainly be considerably more impressive. But the Germans know those figures, and that is what really matters. It is interesting to note that there are now 15 fighter squadrons which have bagged over 100 enemy machines each, and three of them have gone beyond the 150 mark. The total losses of the R.A.F. are 3,098 machines, and the heaviest item is the loss of 981 over enemy territory during the present year. Last year we lost 847 over and round Great Britain. It is worth putting a few of the figures in tabular form : — THAT'S BERLIN THAT WAS. First and second pilots of one of the Short Stirlingbombers which have attacked Berlin, Axis R.A.F. Over and round G.B., 1940 . . 3,038 847 Over enemy terri- tory in Europe, 1941 .. .. 627 981 That comparison shows how terribly expensive was the German offensive last year, and how cheaply by com- parison the R.A.F. has been raiding Germany and her occupied territory. It must also be remembered that when our raids on France bring back fighters from the eastern front, as they have been doing, our own sacrifices in the West may well mean the saving of more Russian machines and the des- truction of more German machines (or tanks or soldiers) in the East, and so the Allied cause may be well up on the total deal. Incidentally, our raids also destroy some things on the ground which the Germans value. While news from the Russian front is scanty, the chief air interest of late has been the consistent attacks on German sea communications both off the northern shores of the Continent and in the Mediterranean. Even when the war was comparatively quiescent the German transport systems were being worked to capacity. Now that millions of men are fighting on the Russian front the strain must be many times multiplied, and so sea transport became more important than ever before. The Coastal Command is chiefly charged with the task of inter- fering with it, and its Beauforts and other bombers have been doing so with gusto. Flak ships usually escort the tramp' steamers, and E-boats are often seen. But our men go m: through the hail of missiles and plant their bombs or launch their torpedoes. It is gallant work, and must be doing the enemy a lot of harm. In the Mediterranean the enemy » now sending very strong naval escorts with his convoys to Tripoli, Bardia.
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