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Aviation History
1942
1942 - 2653.PDF
DECEMBER 24TH, 1942 OVER THE WAVES. Bostons of Bomber Command crossing the Channel at o ft. to attack German troops in occupied territory. The Papua Victory : Axis Need for Transport Aircraft : The Situation in Tunisia and Tripoiitania TIE last stand of the Japanese on the beaches round Gona and Buna was a grim affair. Though Lae and Salamaua remained in Japan ese hands there has been little or no indication that the soldiers on the few strips of beach received help from the air. Some supplies and ammunition were dropped, but of these there was no great need, for the victorious Aus tralians found ample stores when they finally stormed the positions. The Allies, on the other hand, were well off for aircraft, and they kept the dwindling numbers of the stubborn enemy under constant bombardment by day and night. The captured beaches were in a horrible state, with unburied dead lying about, and every one who has lived in the East knows what that means. Towards the end some Japanese troops were seen to be wearing gas masks. In their most recent attempts to get reinforcements ashore the Japanese have not used transport ships, but have conveyed their soldiers on destroyers and cruisers. Several attempts to land men at Gona and Buna in that way were defeated, mainly by air action. About the time these two places fell a convoy of two DOWN IN THE FOREST. Armourert of the U.S.A.A.F. preparptf.ooo lb. btf«ibs under cover of trees/ f \ \ cruisers and four destroyers were spotted off Madang, to the north-west of Lae. They were steaming in the direction of Gona, and were promptly attacked by Liberators and Fortresses. The Japanese did not push on to the doomed beaches of Gona and Buna, but commenced to land by night at points farther to the north-west. The landing barges were fiercely attacked by many types of Allied aircraft, and the ADies have a good assortment of types in the Pacific. Fortresses, Havocs, Airacobras, and Beaufighters were all mentioned as having been in action against the barges, and the slaughter was great. In one group of barges 20 were either sunk or set on fire. Nevertheless, a certain number of Japanese did succeed in getting ashore, but it is believed that the air craft prevented this attempt from be coming a serious threat to the Allied position. The Germans in Russia THE call upon the German and -*- Italian supplies of transport air craft has been very heavy of late. Large numbers have been busy^ between Sicily and Tunisia, while at the same time very many have also been needed to maintain communica tion with the forces of Gen. Hoth at Stalingrad. Those forces are now the besieged, no longer the besiegers, and all ground communications between them and their bases have been cut by the Russians. Consequently every thing that reaches Hoth has to go by air, and the casualties from Russian fighters have not been light. It was mentioned last week in these notes
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