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Aviation History
1943
1943 - 2240.PDF
3O2 WAR IN THE AIR regard the artillery as their main arm, but they uee aircraft as and when they judge necessary, chiefly to bomb rail- way stations behind the German lines. Strategic bombing does not appeal to them, and their papers are sometimes inclined to pooh-pooh the effects of R.A.F. Bomber Command's offensive. They have paid that it has not drawn away a single German division from the Eastern Front. They overlook the fact that it has tied down some million-and- a-half men to air defence, as well as about half the force of German fighters. But the Russian victories have been so glorious that we are not inclined to bandy words with their newspapers, and it is certain that Britain and the United States will •waste no time in establishing a Western Front in Europe. To have attempted it before our forces were ready would have been to ask for a repulse, which would certainly not have helped the Russians. Japan must also be seeing the writ- ing on the wall. The landing of Aus- tralian and American troops near Lae, in New Guinea, was a copy on a small scale of the perfect organisation and staff work which marked the Allied landings in North-West Africa, in Sicily, and in Calabria. About three years ago it was sarcastically said that the British were the greatest masters of the art of evacuation that the world had ever seen. Now we, including Dominion troops and in conjunction with Americans, are the greatest experts at landing on enemy shores. The Japanese round Lae were taken completely by surprise. Australian regiments from another part of the island forced their way through the jungle to link up with the troops which had landed, and American parachut- ists dropped in the rear of the Japan- F L!C HT PHILIPPINIAN MEM- ! ORIAL : Launching the U.S. Aircraft Carrier Bataan from the New York Ship- building Corp. yards at Camden, N.J. ese. General Mac- Arthur flew over in a Fortress to watch the parachutes go down. The landing transports were guarded by a completely successful screen of American war ships and tiy aircraft overhead. All three services combined a> thoroughly as they did in the Mediterranean . campaign, and again fought as one nation. Puzzles for Germany HPHE command Mof the sea in the Mediterranean has given the United Nations the. power to outflank the Germans in Italy at their will, and prompt advantage was taken of this by landing American troops in the neigh- bourhood of Naples. It came as a surprise to people in Great Britain that the troops landed were elements of the American Fifth Army. This left unanswered the question, where was tlTe American Seventh Army which had fought so well in Sicily? The Germans may have known what that Army was about, but with the cessation of Italian air reconnaissance the supply of information reaching the Germans must have been diminished. Another puzzle was set by the great combined exercise carried out in the Channel on September 9th. The Germans may have wondered whether the real invasion of the Continent had • > REPAIR OR SALVAGE? Damaged Flying Fortresses at ajf American base in . Britain. / realty started, but if they concluded that it was only a practice they would still be left in uncertainty as to the spot at which the Allies intended to strike. A notable fact about the exer- cise was the absence of the Luftwaffe. The airfields in the neighbourhood were ruthlessly strafed all day by all appropriate types of fighter-bombers and bombers, and their work may have made it impossible for the Ger- mans to take to the air—though bombing of airfields does not always have such an effect. Another possi- bility is that the news from Italy had.. led the Germans to withdraw " squadrons from northern France, though that seems hardly likely. At any rate, "the swarms of Spitfires and other protecting fighters which pro- vided the air umbrella over the great assembly of vessels in the Channel met with no interference. Altogether some 3,000 sorties were flown by air- craft based on Britain that day, 1,000 of them by machines of the U.S. Army Eighth Air Force. This was the greatest effort yet made by that grow- ing force. The Germans may also be wonder- ing what is meant by Persia's declara- tion of war on them. It may mean little, but it may mean much. At the very least it shows that belief in a Gi^j no longer universal, oubt o/rti&^yidently spreading among theifatellite opuntries, such as Bulgaria tp& Rumania The Ufi'f&i States VNavy Depart - picce of news o cheer up the >anese \ >-ar lords. Mr. cretary of thethe Under-S. itmeut, has announced that by md of this year jthere would be
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