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Aviation History
1942
1942 - 2245.PDF
OCTOBER 29TH, 1942 FLIGHT " Boeing B 17ES of the United States Army Air Force in Britain taxying up to the take-off point. Daylight Bombing : Furious Work in the Middle East : The Pacific Position Hampdens Drop Torpedoes TIP-AND-RUN raids by single German aircraft or by pairs have lately been frequent, and usually the raiders have contented themselves by poking their noses over the coast, getting rid of their bombs on the nearest town; and then turning to fly for their lives. Sometimes they do not save the said lives, for occasionally Spitfires or Beaufighters get on their trail and hunt them to the death. Many stories are told of exciting chases in and out of clouds up to near the coast of the Continent, before the avenging British pilot gets in the burst of cannon shells which sends the German down into the Channel. British pilots can also go out singly in daylight with bombs, and when they do they do not stop at coast towns ; they press on inland. The first instances of the sort which were made public concerned Wellingtons, but lately Mosquitoes have been the chosen instruments. It is very hard .for ground defences to deal with very test bombers which fly low. Airfields are very suitable targets for bombers using such tactics, as they cannot be defended by balloon cables, and there is nothing to prevent the invading bomber from keeping low. Another type which has been in truding by day is the Mustang, the tactical reconnaissance type of the Army Co-operation Command. Part u'ir duties when the great land tattles start will be attacking ground targets, and it is very good thing to give them plenty of practice against the enemy when no Army rations hang upon the success or failure of their efforts. So Mustang squadrons have been out machine- gunning and dropping light bombs on various targets in France and Belgium °n many occasions of late. On October 21st the Mustangs made R.A.F. history by penetrating right into Western Germany. The border of Germany and Holland is some 300 miles from London, so the round trip was a great tribute to the Mustangs' air endurance. They machine-gunned a military camp from tree-top height, and got as far as the Dortmund-Ems Canal, where they shot up some barges. In Russia T AST week it almost looked as if -*-* things were really desperate for the Russians m Stalingrad, but once again a recovery was brought about by the magnificent gallantry of the Russian soldiers. The Russian has always had the reputation of being unsurpassed in defence of a really nasty position, sharing that reputation with the Anatolian Turks. This does not merely imply a readiness to die at his post, for a position cannot be held by dead men who have been exterminated by shells and bombs. It means that Russian leaders have a real gift for seeing instantane ously how to defeat an attack which at first seemed to be over whelming. Moscow radio has recently stated that Soviet RAISING A DUST: Bostons taking off from a Western Desert airfield. pilots were holding an umbrella over the Red infantry in Stalingrad. That seems to signify that new squadrons of fighters have been brought up to help in the defence .-of the battered city, and have been disputing the German mastery in the air. The German dive-bombers have been pounding away at the buildings held by the Russian infantry, and have paid special attention to the artillery positions. The latter arm, so far as can be judged at this distance, has been the chief weapon of the defence when the German panzers have ad vanced to the attack, and if the gun-
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