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Aviation History
1944
1944 - 0010.PDF
WAR IN THE. AIR and H.M.S. Enterprise arrived on the scene and promptly attacked. The German Navy is believed to have not much more than 20 destroyers left, so this blockade-runner was evidently inli of something which the Germans very much wanted to get safely de livered, as they risked such a large proportion of their surviving surface fleet in the effort to protect her. Five of the destroyers were of the new Narvik class, each of which has gun- power not much inferior to that of H.M.S. Enterprise, a 25-year-old ship of 7,580 tons. But the Germans would not fight. The flotilla split up and dispersed in groups of three or four ships. Meanwhile, all aircraft which could get there joined in the fight. There was some attempted interference by enemy aircraft, but it does not seem to have amounted to much. Beaufighters and Mosquitoes gave air cover to the British cruisers, and one Heinkel 177 was shot into the sea by a Mosquito. One Halifax and one Beaufighter were lost, apparently having been shot down by flak from either the blockade-runner or the destroyers. Three of the latter were certainly sunk by the guns of the two cruisers, and others were known to have been damaged. The engagement resulted in a heavy loss to German surface sea power, and it was a grand example of combined work by the Navy and Coastal Com mand. Neither by itself could have brought off such a satisfactory result, but by working closely together they scored a victory which was equally creditable to both. More Berlin Devastation TpHE Battle of Berlin goes stormily -*- on through ihjsjong winter nights, and the small hours of Christmas Eve saw one brief but heavymttack. There have been mtore since )then. Often FL,GHT^\ READY TO SCRAMBLE: Chinese pilots at the "Ready" playing "Wei Chi" to pass the time. " Wei Chi" is a complicated form of draughts played on the lines instead of the squares. the cloudy sky has provided cover for the British bombers and has blanketed the searchlights and flak of the de fence. It has not, however, defeated the Pathfinders, who vary their methods and drop whichever sort of flare will best help the bombers in the circumstances of each particular night. The defensive fighters remain the most formidable opponents with which the bombers have to deal, but luckily their number is limited, and Bomber Command has lately devel oped great skill in misleading them. On the night of December 29th, for example, diversionary attacks were made on several targets not far from Berlin, which drew off the fighters and left the way clear for the main force to get over the Capital almost un resisted. In half an hour, between 8 p.m. (B.S.T.) and 8.30 the raiders dropped 2,000 tons of bombs, and so thick were the great bombers in the air over the target that some pilots said they found difficulty in squeezing into the queue for their bombing runs. Reports from Sweden say that the eastern and southern parts of the city were chiefly devastated, and the Tem- plehof air base was one of the points which suffered—though not to such an extent that aircraft were unable to take off from it next day. It would take an extensive '' Tedder Carpet ' to put that airfield out of action, and probably the result would not be worth the effort. f The cost of that night's work to Bomber Command was no more than 20 machines, which was a very low proportion of the numbers despatched. Losses have been steadily growing smaller in recent months in proportion to the effort, and the fighters do not have things all their own way. During 1943 machines of Bomber Command 1 MORE DEADLY THAN THE MALE ? : Lily Litvyak, fighter pilot and junior lieutenant in the Russian Air Force, takes off on her Yak I. She has 130 sorties and seven enemy aircraft to her credit.
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