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Aviation History
1942
1942 - 0580.PDF
242 FLIGHT MARCH 12TH, 1942 ma ENEMY AIR LOSSES TO Over G.B. March 1 0 ..2 0 .30 ,. 4 1 .,5 0 ..6 0 .. 7 1 2 Totals : North, Far Over Continent 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 MARCH Middle East 0 2 1 3 1 2 0 9 5,656; Middle East, over East (unofficial ,308. 7th. Par East 0 5 6 5 1 0 0 17 3,320 | bravery is fanatical. But they must have been sitting back and thinking seriously about their losses in their most recent offensives. Their Army 97s simply crumple up before the fiercely driven home attacks and counter-attacks of the Allies. The American Volunteer Group, who have been exacting such a terrible toll of the Japanese, have won the whole hearted admiration of the R.A.F. In some places, in addition to fighting, the R.A.F. have performed other ser vices, notably the ferrying of civilians, including many women and children, out of the danger zone. Severe fighting continues all along the front in Russia, and one very interesting fact about the German situation is that they have been using parachute troops as ordinary infantry to repel Russian attacks. That cer tainly seems wasteful, and shows the German need to send up reinforce ments at all costs. It has now been announced that the R.A.F. Fighter Wing has returned from Murmansk, leaving their Hurricanes for Russian pilots to fly. Sir Archibald Sinclair stated in his Air Estimates speech that the Russians now hold air WAR IN THE AIR superiority over the Germans along the whole of that front. The succession of raids on Malta has been carried on, with some deplorable loss of civilian life and damage to property. But recently a more cheer ing report has come from there to the effect that the losses which the de fences have inflicted on the enemy are beginning to tell, and that the Ger mans are feeling the depletion of their bomber squadrons. In consequence they have begun to use fighter- bombers, as they did in th% closing stages of the Battle of Britain. These machines set the sirens going, but they do not do so much damage as the real bombers can do. R.A.F. Over France THE R.A.F. raid on the Renault fac- •*• tory on the outskirts of Paris was explained by the Air Minister in his Estimates speech as marking, not a change in policy, but a change in weather. The factory had been turn ing out tanks for the Germans, and other equipment, too, and we obvi ously could not permit that to go on within easy reach of our bombers. From the point of view of destruction, the raid was extremely successful, and will have an appreciable effect on the equipment of German divisions to be used against Russia. It was unfortu nate that French workmen lost their lives in the raid, but the outburst of Marshal Petain against '' criminal aggression " which brought " innocent civilians to their deaths'' was quite illogical. We cannot regard as inno- BRITISH AIR LOSSES TO MARCH 7th. Over G.B. A'crft. March 1 0 „ 2 0 „ 3 0 „ 4 0 . 5 0 „ 6 0 ,7 0 0 Over Continent Bombers. 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 3 Middle Far East East A'crft. A'crft. 0 0 5 0 3 0 2 3 0 0 0 0 ~8 ~5 Totals : North, 3,288; Middle East, about 999 ; Far East (unofficial) about 34. cent anybody who makes arms to lie used against our Russian ally. ""** The Renault raid was followed by an afternoon attack on other factories near Paris and elsewhere in France. A night attack by Bomber Command on the enemy naval base at St. Nazaire was also good work. We have been regularly bombing French ports used by the enemy and power stations in northern France for nearly two years, but it was only the attack on the out skirts of Paris which evoked an out burst from Marshal Petain. By the same token, our pilots on daylight raids have often seen French peasants and fishermen waving good luck to them as they flew overhead. The soul of the French people is still sound and logi cal, whatever the titular head of France may say. The weather throughout February was very bad for air operations, but Bomber Command was at work 'on 16 nights, while the R.A.F. as a whole carried out offensive operations on 17 days as well. The enemy only made small attacks on Great Britain on nine nights and engaged in even smaller activities by day on ten occasions, with very meagre results. HIGH SPEED DEMOLITION : The terrific striking pdwer of Bomber Command is Renault factory at Billancourt, The raid laste Oi hplified in this photograph of the wrecked a two hours. u >
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