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Aviation History
1943
1943 - 1083.PDF
29TH, T943 FLIGHT 455 A Martin Marauder (B.26) struggling home to N. Africa after being badly shot up over the target. From this picture it will be seen that the Marauder carres eight .5m. machine guns for rear protection The Cap Bon Battle : Tedder Hits Out in All Directions : Coastal Command and Convoys : Eighth Army Advances IT will be long before the great airbattle off Cap Bon is forgotten.It is another feather in the cap of that fine organisation, the Western Desert Air Force, now forming part of the Tactical Air Force of North Africa. Air Vice-Marshal Broad hurst's squadrons hail from Britain, from the Empire, and from the United States. The last-named are known as the United States Army 9th Air Force, and their Warhawk fighters are improvements on the earlier Kittyhawks. The Americans and the British have been working together 50 long that they quite understand each other's ways, and it is nothing new for the Warhawks to go out on ptrtrol with a top coveT of British Spitfires. They were patrolling in that way on Sunday, April 18th, off Cap Bon, then P of Tunisia which reaches out towards Sicily, when they spotted sume 100 transport aircraft flying Mow, and, almost skimming the waves There was an escort above of Me 109s and 110s The Spitfires im- mediately tackled the escort, while the Warhawks shot down the trans- porters pretty well as fast as one could shell peas. The fight took place near the land, and some of the Ju machines crash-landed on the shore near Cap Bon. It was a mighty slaughter. No less than 58 Ju transports were de- finitely shot down, while of the escort 14 Me 109s and two 110s shared the same fate. In addition, 30 other enemy machines were damaged. The Western Desert Air Force lost only a few pilots. Next day more Ju 52s were also shot down. The total Axis loss for the two days was 112 machines, of which 70 were Ju 52s. The Cap Bon battle was only one incident of an exceptionally bus ' week-end. On the same day Malta's jighter-bombers attacked Ragusa, in the south of Sicily; strong formations of Fortresses of the Strategic Air Force raided once again the airfield and marshalling yards of Palermo; Mitchell bombers attacked the har- bour of Porto Torres, in northern Sardinia, and an airfield in the island, and that night (Sunday) Bomber Command again sent four-engined bombers on the 1,500-mile return trip to do more damage to the Italian naval base at Spezia. There were also a number of minor operations, • and activities continue. Nothing that air power can do to assert Allied supremacy in the Mediterranean area is. being left undone. The Axis riposte on that busy Sunday was almost ridiculous. Some enemy bombers flew to Algiers by night, but very few penetrated the defences and five were shot down.. Naturally the few who got through did succeed in knocking down some civilian houses and taking a few lives. Spezia has not been the only target of late for a long-distance raid by Bomber Command. Reports received by the British Intelligence organisa- tion show that the attack on the Skoda works at Pilsen on April 16th devastated completely about 50 acres, including some of the most important shops. Even before Essen had en- ' dured the series of recent very heavy raids by Bomber Command the Ger- mans had begun to do what they could to increase the importance oi the
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