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Aviation History
1942
1942 - 0068.PDF
24 FLIGHT JANUARY 8TH, 1942 WAR IN THE AIR and prevented trie enemy machines from taking off. A couple of Messer- schmitts succeeded in getting to grips with our aircraft and shot down two of them. Four Heinkel n is were shot down. Our aircraft also silenced some of the enemy batteries, and one flight of Blenheims found a convoy off the coast and sank one ship for certain. The warships destroyed a number of other enemy vessels. The Germans describe this raid as having only a nuisance value. It is more probable that it was a dress re hearsal for neater operations by all three Services in conjunction. Com bined operations of this sort may well develop' into something really big in the future. Victorious Russia r\N the Moscow front the Germans ^-' have suffered a heavy defeat. They are not routed, but they are in retreat over country which offers no hopeful line of resistance, suffering terribly from the cold, and outnumbered in the air. Troops were brought up from Cracow, it is said, by air in a vain attempt to stem the Russian ad vance. It is reckoned that up to 50 per eent. of their fighter strength has been withdrawn to France to meet the British sweeps, while of late they have been massing bombers in Greece, Crete and Sicily, no doubt hoping to check General Auchinleck's advance before the whole of Italian Libya is lost and the British forces advance up to the boundaries of French Tunisia. No wonder that Hitler's New Year message to the German people was pitched in a minor key and contained something like -a prayer that Ger many might be saved in the coming /ear. .Stiff fighting has continued round Je\abva, where General Rommel ha- FRENCH INDO CHINA SAIGON® SCALE IN MILES lost more of his remaining tanks. The losses of the Axis air forces are amaz ing, and airfields have been falling into the hands of our troops on a wholesale scale. One very striking incident was a raid by a regiment of Sikhs on Derna airfield, which overcame all resistance and did immense damage. General Auchinleck has been assaulting Bardia, IDENTIFICATION PROBLEM : British troops searching the remains of an enemy bomber shot down in Libya. Souvenirs will be collected and cherished only to be thrown away on the first full-pack march. and as the enemy garrison has no hope of relief the place must fall—perhaps it will have fallen by the time these words are published. The use of this port will simplify our supply problems, which have been growing as our for ward troops get farther away from their base. Benghazi is in our hands, but the port has been much damaged. At the same . time. Middle East bombers have been raiding air bases in Greece and Crete. Damage has been done at the Piraeus and Heraklion, and the submarine base at Salamis has also been bombed. The shade of that bril liant scamp Themistocles must have rejoiced at this last-mentioned effort by the friends of Hellenic freedom. Tripoli and places on either side of it are, of course, regularly visited by our bombers. In the Pacific TN the meantime things have been •*• less cheerful in the Pacific. Japanese bombers have raided Rangoon, but lost a high proportion of their number to Allied fighters. The American volunteers who have undertaken to guard the Burma road helped the British fighters. There have been alerts at Singapore, but the place has not been knocked about so far. The R.A.F. bombers have responded by o<\ \<&\
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