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Aviation History
1943
1943 - 1424.PDF
572 FLIGHT JUNE 3RD, 1943 WAR IN THE AIR the heaviest air attack in history— when the Hun was reported to have been caught completely off his guard because so many of Dortmund's A.R.P. workers and firemen had been hurriedly switched to the Ruhr to give a hand in the rescue work in the floods from the blasted Mohne dam. The subsequent raid on Dusseldorf, when more than five 4,000 lb. bombs wen- dropped every minute, as well a = 8,000 lb. block-busters and thousands of incendiaries and other bombs, may be taken as a suitable reply to Jerry's plea to call the game off because he is now losing. Nor is there any need for either Hun or neutral to tell us how dreadful is the inevitable killing of women and children when a city is bombed. Have we not dug the bloody, mangled bodies of our own women and children from the blitz wreckage in many a British town and city? And have we not groaned at the sight of rows of little coffins after some gal- lant Nazi "ace" had sent violent death screaming down on a school full of children? Unfortunately for the women and children of Germany, a people cannot escape responsibility for their Government's actions, and the world is now in process of being freed from Nazi frightfulness—"They who live by the sword shall perish by the sword." The bomb has replaced the sword—that is all. A Major Featiire CO that there should be no mistake >-' about it, Mr. Attlee, Deputy Prime Minister, made the statement' in the Commons last week that neither the enemy nor anyone else would divert the United Nations from the destruc- tion of the. Axis war potential by air MARS EXPRESS Naval Mark VI kiteshed look like some bombing, pointing out that it was a major feature of our offensive and that we did not indulge in indiscriminate bombing, but selected those targets which were more effective from the military point of view. And among those targets have also been, in ever-growing prominence, the ports, airfields and power-plants of Italy's coasts and islands. Last week nearly 400 aircraft of the North-West African Air Forces took part in a single day's operations against industrial and military targets in Sicily, Sardinia and Pantellaria. Cagliari, capital of Sardinia, has been cleared of its inhabitants, and while the attack on this island was going on, heavy bombers were pounding the feriy ports of Reggio and San Gio- vanni, which link the toe of Italy with Sicily. R.A.F. Wellingtons bombed GOOD SHOOTING : A direct hit on the road-bridge connecting Mulheim Styrum with Mulheim Speldorf in the Ruhr. balloons lying in a row in an inflationqueer aerial train. Messina, and other aircraft, based on Malta, went for Catania, which is also on Sicily's eastern coast. These raids were followed up by similar attacks on the island of Pantellaria (midway be- tween Sicily and Cape Bon) by a force of American fighters and fighter- bombers, and the total of enemy air- craft shot down in combat during thi.; period of two or three days rose to 317, while an undetermined number were also destroyed on the ground. A raid on the airfield at Alghero by B-26 Marauders and bomb-carrying P-38 Lightnings seems to have been a particularly concentrated effort by the Americans; " We sowed bombs on Alghero like we sow wheat in North Dakota," was the subsequent com- ment of a sergeant from Ohio. Ineffective Me's Occasional efforts by Messerschmitt Me 109 fighters to interfere with our punitive activities have cost them dearly without having very much effect. As an example, a squadron of Flying Fortresses of the Strategic Air Force was met by about 50 of these enemy fighters when returning from Sicily. The result was that the " Forts " shot down three of them and continued on their way without loss to themselves. The most important single achieve- ment in these sweeps against Italy's island bases was scored by Lightnings on the island of Sardinia, where the power-station below the Tirso dam was destroyed with a number of direct hits. This power-station provides most of the island's lighting and power. The Tirso dam was not attacked because if it were destroyed it could not be repaired by any occu- pying force and the reservoir, which is the largest in Europe and twice the size of the Eder reservoir, contains 416,000,000 tons of water. Three of Sicily's airfields were the chief targets in subsequent attacks,
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