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Aviation History
1944
1944 - 0277.PDF
FEBRUARY IOTH, 1944 FLIGHT \ ENEMY AIR LOSSES TO FEB. Jan. 30 ... Z 31 ... Feb. 1 ... •m Over G.B. 0 0 0 0 8 0 0 8 Con tinent 12 0 0 0 1 0 0 li Middle East ' 0 I 0 0 1 0 0 2 Totals : West, 7,946 ; Middle East, over N.W. Africa and Italy. 4,279. 5th Italy 63 18 5 4 5 6 4 UK 5,768 ; veloped by the Pathfinder Force in Bomber Command. One interesting feature about this raid on Wilhelmshaven was that for once the escorting fighters claimed more enemy victims than the bombers claimed, the figures being eight and one respectively. The enemy fighter opposition was said to have been weak, which is surprising. As a rule the Luftwaffe lays itself out to oppose heavy raids with, all the resources at its command. -^ Jn 52s Again vjrrHETHER it was one of Hitler's * * intuitions or not we cannot say, but once again the Germans have left their withdrawal in Russia too late, as they did once before at Stalingrad, with the result that the Russians sur rounded a large body. When that happens to a German force the JU52 always cOmes into the picture again. These machines are hurried up to take supplies into the surrounded area and to evacuate individuals whom the Germans feel that they must rescue at all costs. Whether the German factories have been able to replace the large num bers of transport aircraft which were shot down off Tunisia and Corsica can- WAR IN THE AIR not be definitely stated, but the odds are against it. In their present plight it is unlikely that the Germans could devote much energy to the production of troop-carriers, when their most urgent need is for fighters, and after them medium bombers for use with the armies. However, what could be done by air transport in Russia the Germans have attempted to do. The transporters which tried to ease the position of the German 8th Army in the neighbourhood of Shpola were escorted by fighters, which was a very necessary precaution. Russian fighters attacked them, and at the same time the Russian commanders used their best endeavours to restrict the use which the enemy could make of the airfields in the area which was sur rounded. It is said that those Ju 52s which got through (and, of course, they did not all get through) were loaded up for the return journeys with German officers, presumably men of some importance. We may also pre sume, and likewise hope, that not all of the returning machines got clean away. The Russians do not often indulge in strategic bombing, holding that their bombers can be better employed as the long-range artillery of their armies. However, there was a raid on Helsinki last week, and reports from Sweden say that it was a heavy one. This would doubtless be connected with the political position in Finland, where most of the Finns want to get out of the war as quickly as they can. At such a moment an air raid pro duces the greatest effect on moral. It increases the urgency with which the leld airfield at Campino, south of Rome, after a ategic Air Forces based in Italy. ^V BRITISH & U.S. AIR LOSSES TO FEB. bth Jan. 30 31 Feb. 1 2 3 4 5 Totals : Over G.B. A'cft. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Continent B'brs. F'ters. 33 1 0 9 1 0 2 0 4 II 21 2 8 4 69 27 /Vest, 9,604 ; Middle Easi Middle East A'cft. 0 3 2 0 3 0 0 8 Italy 6 4 0 1 2 3 0 16 , about 2,356 ; N.W. Africa and Italy, 1,585. peace party presses its views, and dis credits the cause of the pro-Nazis. The Finns have done little fighting for a long time past, and the recent relief of Leningrad by the Red Army has brought home to them the remoteness of Germany's prospects of victory. Bombs drive home the argument. An Allied bombing raid on Toulon was aimed at the submarine base which the Germans have established there. But the bombers found the French battle cruiser Dunkerque in the harbour, and naturally attacked her. She had been scuttled by the French themselves, but only in the shallow water of the harbour, and had since been refloated. She was set on fire by the bombs, and a Vichy broad caster described her as a " pathetic wreck." She has had a pathetic career, whereas she might have had a glorious one. Now, even if fit to put to sea, she could be little use to the Germans in the Mediterranean. One swallow does not make a summer, and one battle cruiser, without a proper complement of other warships, could make no difference to the Allied naval supremacy in the Mediterranean. Other French warships will soon, w( hope, be fighting gloriously for tn honour of France.
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