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Aviation History
1942
1942 - 1784.PDF
220 WAR IN THE AIR Tedder to Moscow as one of the party which accompanied the Prime Minis ter. One may imagine that it was thought advisable to give Mr. Stalm and his staff first-hand news about the Battle of Egypt, and obviously it would not have been possible to take eithft General Auchinleck or General Alexander to Moscow at the moment when the one was handing over to the oilier. Sir Arthur Tedder has been working in the closest touch with General Auchinleck, and so could give tfae Russian staff a true picture of the situation. It would seem probable that he went to Moscow as a represen tative of the Middle East rather than of the R.A.F., but that, of course, is only conjecture. U.S. Array Air Force in Action •HPHE American Army Ah: Force in -J- Britain made its first independent raid last week—a daylight raid by Fortresses on the docks at Rouen. The arrangement is that though the R.A.F. and the U.S. Air Force may raid independently or in combination, each shall always know what the other is doing. In this case R.A.F. Spitfires provided the escort for the U.S. bom bers, while in diversion raids else- • where in France R.A.F. bombers were protected by squadrons of American fighters. Numbers of U.S. fighter squadrons are using Spitfires, which is a convenience and an economy of effort, but the U.S. bomber squadrons intend to stick to their own types of aircraft, with which, so General Spaatz F LI G HT f t ' / \^y AUGUST 27 fTH, I941 TROPICALISED SPITFIRE: A cannon-armed Spitfire V operating trom an airfield in the Western Desert. On August 19th a squadron of Spitfires, patrolling over El Alamein, engaged 20 enemy fighters, shot down four and damaged others without loss to themselves. has said, they are well satisfied. It is, no doubt, fortunate that the British (including their continental allies) a^id the Americans each prefer their own types of bombers. The Rouen raid was very successful. That _ night Bomber Command visited Osnabriick again and dropped over 50,000 fire-bombs. German raids on Britain continued to be sporadic and on a small scale, but most of them have caused a few casualties, and some of the raiders often fall victims to our fighters. Not much has been heard in the past about the Brazilian Air Force, but lately it has been out hunting hard for thi U-boats which have been sinking 1 DAUNTLESS, UNDAUNTED DOUBTLESS : bomber landing on an American aircraft carrier after J The decks of American carriers are of teak and for securing pickets Brazilian ships. Most of the types used are American, but the Republic possesses some Fairey Gordons. The Russians have been fighting desperately in critical battles, and fighting with a strategic purpose always kept well in mind. To this strategic purpose all tactical considera tions have been subordinated, and some of the Russian losses have been bitter. The Germans have been bomb ing the Black Sea ports which still remain in Russian hands, and claim . to have sunk some supply ships. At the other end of the line, the Russians up in the north have found time to do some bombing of towns in East Prussia, e.g. Danzig, Konigsberg, and Tilsit, without losing any machines. Large fires were started in all of them. In the Solomons A LITTLE more news has emerged •^ about the American and Austra lian attack on the Solomons and the operations related thereto. It has been admitted that H.M.A.S. Canberra, a lo.ooo-ton cruiser, has been lost, b>*t most of the ship's company w0c rescued. There were 193 casualties, of which 109 were wounded. The U.S. Navy Department has issued an interesting statement, saying that Marines are mopping up the rem nants of the Japanese forces on the islands recently captured in the Solo mon archipelago. The word "cap tured u is very cheering. An enemy cruiser or destroyer was bombed and set on fire by U.S. aircraft. The Japanese must be running very short of crubers by now. However, a few days/before that happened, 24 heavy Japanese bombers made a raid on Port Moresby which did some damage and caused some casualties, but naturally etails have not been published. We rnh^t all possess our souls in patience untiNit is safe for Gen. MacArthur to let us Ttnow all that has been happen ing in \he Solomons; but the indica tions are\of a hopeful nature. Com-
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