FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1942
1942 - 1173.PDF
JUNE 4m, 1942 in The Air Rommel's Dive-bombers Launch Libya Attack : Russians Press Around Kharkov : Burma Refugees Get Food by Air AFTER an interval during which /-% the major war interest lay in * * Burma and Southern Russia, the long-awaited Axis offensive in the Western Desert last week shifted it suddenly back to North Africa. A sharp increase in enemy air recon naissance heralded the imminence of Rommel's new offensive, which began when dive-bombers attacked our for-, ward positions near Bir Hacheim, some 40 miles inland south-west of Tobruk, while other Axis aircraft bombed communications in the rear of the Eighth Army. Large enemy armoured forces had meanwhile advanced across the 15-mile wide no-man's-land between the two armies, and our tanks met them at dawn. Other enemy forces attacked our line in front of Gazala on the coast road. Both sides threw their air strength into the struggle, the R.A.F. launch ing continuous day and night attacks on enemy airfields, bases and supply columns between Benghazi and the scenes of the tank battles; but even before the attack was launched our aircraft had for several days observed the enemy's preparations in the « yan back areas, and when convoys .0an to move up with men, guns, petrol and other war stores they re ceived a severe handling from fighters and bombers of the Imperial Air Forces in spite of the attempts of Nazi fighters to protect them. At the time these words are being written there is no news of how the battle is going, but it is stated that Gen. Sir Claude Auchinleck's Eighth Army has- numerical advantage both in men and tanks in spite of the rein forcements Rommel has been receiv ing, while the Imperial Air Forces are at least equal in strength to the com bined German and Italian air forces. The attack began under perfect weather conditions, with bright moon light nights, and in its initial stages it seemed that Rommel's object was to get round our southern flank, but within 24 hours the main German thrust turned north-east towards El Adem, about halfway between Tobruk AT A CHINESE DISPERSAL POINT : Bombs arriving by lorry to be loaded on to a Russian S.B.i bomber of the Chinese Air Force. and Bir Hacheim, where Gen. Auch- inleck, foreseeing this move, had stationed a crack armoured division to meet it. The Bir Hacheim area comprises some of the '' toughest'' desert in the whole of Libya. Wild Nazi Claims "\17ITH neither side giving very ** much away in the shape of definite news, it has been rather diffi cult, for some days past, to form anything r like an accurate idea of just how matters are progressing with our Russian Allies from day to day. Com parative 1 y modest claims are put forward by the Russians and these are contradicted by the usual wild Nazi claims to the effect that the Red Army's resistance is practically finished and that it only re mains to mop up the stragglers — propaganda stuff obviously intended mainly for home con sumption. The chief centre of interest on the Russian front still lies, at the time of writing, in the south-east end of the long line—the Khar- kov-Donetz areas—but activity recently boiled up afresh in the Smo lensk sector, although this was virtually a diversion staged by the Germans and did not gain them any material advantage; indeed, they were reported to have suffered heavy casualties without in flicting comparable losses. Clearly, however, Timoshenko's vigorous efforts in the Kharkov battle, which have bulged the German line so far towards Poltava and Dnepropetrovsk as to have created a dangerous salient, have obliged Von Bock to throw in hundreds of tanks NAVIGAJtfR/BOMB AIMER : A peep into the nose compefftment of a Boston III, where one man com bines the two jobs of finding the way and dropping the bombs on the right spot. / it£*~
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
