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Aviation History
1943
1943 - 1889.PDF
JULY 29TH, 1943 FLIGHT WAR IN THE AIR ENEMY AIR LOSSES TO JULY July 18 „ 19 „ 20 „ 21 „ 22 .. 23 „ 24 OverC.B. oooooo o o Con- tinent 8I 00 00 1 10 MiddleEast o—ooo— o 2 24th N.W. Africa 18II 64 24 16 3 82 Totals : West, 7,124 ; Middle East, over 5,480; North West Africa, 2,605. on the flow as the German effort ebbed. All accounts lay emphasis on the great work of the Russian artillery. It seems to have played the chief part in driving back the German thrust, and its numerical strength and accuracy of fire came as a surprise to I the -Germans. Doubtless the Russian Vir arm played its part in the pitched battles, but its main role apparently was to bomb the back areas of the enemy and disorganise his communi- cations and relief arrangements. The railway stations behind the German front were heavily bombed, and that must have meant that many bodies of reinforcements intended to relieve tired formations in the firing line were late in arriving. The Russian pres- sure continues as we write. An Eventful Week-end INVENTS have crowded on to each -*-*' other so rapidly during the last week-end that a commentator is left ^almost dizzy. Of course, the resigna- L tion of Mussolini overshadows every- thing else in importance, but it is for diplomatic writers to gauge its exact significance and probable results. This jackal of Hitler has brought ruin and humilation on his country, and his CONSOLIDATION : Rolling the airfield at Pachino. This was the first Sicilianairfield to be captured by the Allies. The Italians had ploughed it up before retreating. career of autocratic power conies to an end amid the crashing of Allied bombs on many parts of Italy, while Sicily is as good as lost, the African Empire entirely gone, and many hun- dreds of thousands of Italian soldiers, sailors and airmen are prisoners of war in the hands of the Allies. The most important arsenals and factories of Italy have been bombed to destruc- tion, the railway communications badly interrupted, the population is grievously short of food, the Navy dis- credited, and the once fair name of Italy reduced to a mockery. Among the many fiascos which have marked the regime of Mussolini as a War Lord, his request to Hitler that the Regia Aeronautica should be allowed to have the honour (save the mark !) of bomb- ing Britain into submission in 1940 was almost the most cynically bump- tious and the most ignominiously futile. The week-end saw a remarkable advance by the Allies in Sicily. The Eighth Army is acknowledged by friends and foes to be the most potent instrument of land fighting on either side, and was naturally given the BRITISH & U.S. AIR LOSSES to J ULY 24th July 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Totals Over G.B. A'crft. oooooo o 0 Continent B'brs. F'trs. 2 6 - 0 1 0 1 0 0 • o o 0 1 13 0 15 9 Middle East A'crft. 0 0 0 0 0 17 0 17 N.W. Africa A'crft. 4 9 6 2 6 4 2 33 : West, 6,810; Middle East, about 2,191 ; North West Africa, 945. COINCIDENCE : Mr. Alan Butler, chairman of titMrs. Butler to Mr. R. G. Casey, Minister, JQe Havilland factory, and Mrs. Butler, wji.• a Mosquito fqMlelivery to the R.A.F. toughest task, namely, that of advanc- ing on the right of the line where enemy resistance was sure to be the most difficult to overcome. The Ger- mans put up a very tough fight on the plain to the south of Catania. The Americans, "a hundred per cent, better than they were in North Africa," as General Alexander said, had an easier task on the left, but they made magnificent use of it, and their speedy capture of the western ports of Marsala and Trapani were fine pieces of campaigning, only surpassed by the still finer dash up to Palermo. Italian troops surrendered to them by tens of thousands. Palermo's harbour will not be bombed again by the Allies. Lancaster bombers which had attacked the electrical grid system in Northern Italy a few days before, and had then flown on to Africa for a rest, bombed the important port of Leghorn on their return flight to Britain, with- out losing a single machine. In the North and West of Europe, the week-end saw British and Ameri- can bombing raids on Hamburg, and American raids on Kiel and Heroya, in Norway. On Saturday night last Bomber Command made its biggest raid of the war to date, when within 50 minutes 2,300 tons of bombs were dropped on Hamburg. Next day the Americans followed this up with pre- cision bombing by daylight. Saturday also saw a long-distance daylight raid by U.S. aircraft on Heroya, 65 miles south-west of Oslo, where there is an aluminium plant, and on submarine works at Trondheim.
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