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Aviation History
1942
1942 - 0497.PDF
•• ,• : • • • • - * ;,••••••••••••••••. MARCH 5TH, 1942 E AIR ENEMY AIR LOSSES TO FEB. 28th. Feb. 22 .. 23 „ ™ „ 25 ,. 26 ,. 27 „ 28 Totals Far Over G.B. 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 2 — North, Over Continent 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 5,653 ; Middl Middle Far East East 0 ? 0 0 4 0 35 0 i 21 3 » 1 ? 4 60 —« — e East over 3,51 1 ; East (figures not official), about 291. -^Sioo "men, but its numbers have since been reduced. The Germans are making desperate attempts to get food and ammunition through to their men by air, but the Red Air Fleet is shoot ing down many German machines. Parachutists' Exploit T^OR the second time in the present -*- war British parachute troops have made a surprise raid on enemy terri tory. The fir/st case was a raid in Cala bria, and practically no details have been published about its objects or the degree of success which it accom plished. It is merely known that some of our troops fell into the hands of the enemy,, and that Italian nerves were considerably shaken. The raid of last we.ek-end was quite a small affair, merely the destruction of a German radiolocation post at Bruneval, 12 miles north of Havre. The significance of it lies in the per fection of the arrangements and the way in which all three Services worked together. The part of the R.A.F. was to take the parachute troops to the right spot in the moonlight and drop them as near as possible to their ob jective. Only one detachment was RUN TO EARTH : The Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were very soon tracked down to their new lairs after their escape from much-bombed Brest, thanks to the far- ranging reconnaissance of the R.A.F. Here is their photograph of the Gneisenau (indicated by the arrow) in a floating dock at Kiel. The white patches are snow lying on areas devastated by air raids. dropped rather far away, and we have not been told whether only a single Whitley or a flight went astray. Any way the troops, led by a young officer aged 20, soon found their way to the right spot. In the meantime fighter aircraft created diversions overhead, though the enemy were so completely surprised that they never seem to have realised what was going on. The Ger man guards were at once overpowered, though they fought well, and British sappers destroyed the station. No attempt was made to fly the parachute troops back. That was not part of the scheme at all. The Navy took on the final part of the show. Infantry were landed to engage the shore defences. These defences were shelled by the warships and were taken in the rear by the returning parachute troops. All our men, except for a very few casualties, were safely embarked, with their prisoners, well before the German armoured division, which was lying some 50 miles off, was able to get "to the scene. The whole opera tion took only two hours. Fierce Battle Off Java JAVA is the great prize towards the capture of which the Japanese have been working up ever since the fall of Singapore. During last week end they made landings at three points. Their transports and escort ing warships were most resolutely attacked at night by the naval and air forces of the Dutch and Americans, and confused fighting took place. There were losses of cruisers and destroyers on both sides, but at the moment of writing the concrete results have not been collated and published. The air forces of the United Nations flung themselves whole-heartedly into the fray, and bombed a large number of the Japanese transports. SILENT APPROACH : Twelve-seater amphibious gliders are reported to be on order •or the U.S. Navy Air Service and this artist's drawing of the type appeared in a recent issue of our American contemporary, Flying and Popular Aviation. These gliders are said to be nearly as big as a DC-3 airliner. BRITISH AIR LOSSES TO FEB. Over G.B. A'crft. Feb. 22 0 • „ 23 0 „ 24 0 „ 25 0 „ 26 0 ,. 27 0 , 28 0 0 Over Continent B'brs. Ftrs. 0 0 0 0 3 0 2 0 3 0 3 1 0 3 II 4 Middle East A'crft. 0 0 4 3 2 6 2 17 Totals : North, 3.285; Middle East, 991 ; Far East (figures not official) 28th. Far East A'crft. . 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 3 about 29.
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