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Aviation History
1943
1943 - 1489.PDF
JUNE IOTH, 1943 FLIGHT 597 COMPETITION ? Nesting storks watch a formation of Mitchells go off to drop their load on Italy. The Battle of the Atlantic : Luftwaffe Losses : Qreat Fight by a Sunderland : Tedder's Offensive Continues TIE Battle of the Atlantic goeson unceasingly, but at momentswhen a great victory like that in North-West Africa is won, the public is apt to. forget about the con- voys. Now that active Army opera- tions in the Mediterranean area have ceased for a while (though they may have flared up again before these words are published), and matters there have been left in the hands' of the Navy and Air Force, it is appro- priate to turn our thoughts once more to the Atlantic. Mr. Alexander, First Lord of the Admiralty, was able to give an encouraging account last week of the struggle there between the U- boat and the convoys. He even hoped that the figures for May would show that more U-boats were destroyed during the month than the German shipyards were able to replace. For some months past the majority of sinkings by U-boats have taken place in the middle stretch of the Atlantic which could not be covered by aircraft based on either the British or the American shores. Now a new type of vessel has been evolved, the escort carrier, several of which are now in service, and they promise to make a great difference to the struggle. Escort vessels, destroyers, frigates and corvettes can make heavier and more effective attacks than aircraft can, when they get near the submarine, but of late aircraft have grown more effec- tive than they once were, and they carry depth charges, which are more potent than bombs. In fact, recon- naissance and reporting are no longer the main function of aircraft in the fight against U-boats, and they have become definitely a major weapon of attack. The appearance of the escort carriers on the central stretch of the Atlantic must be most discouraging to the German chiefs who look on the U-boat as their last remaining chance of victory. The chiefs of the Luftwaffe can be no more cheerful than the directors of the U-boat campaign. The construc- tion of German aircraft is believed to have reached its peak, and to be in- capable of expansion except at the cost of other munitions of war—and it is no easy matter to make a switch over of that description. At such a crisis the loss of large numbers of machines without any compensating damage done to the Allies is a serious matter, and the final campaign in Tunisia cost the Axis dear. No fewer than 558 aircraft have been found, either whole or in parts, on the air- fields round Tunis, Bizerta and Cap Bon. Since the conclusion of that Spitfire Nines are now operating from the wire runways on the Tunisian airfieldsto provide height cover for Allied bombers.
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