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Aviation History
1944
1944 - 0429.PDF
iARCH 2ND, 1944 FLIGHT ENEMY AIR LOSSES TO FEB. 26th Feb. 20 .. 21 ,. 22 „ 23 , 24 ,. 25 „ 26 Over G.B. 10 4 10 0 0 31 Con tinent 0 0 2 I 0 3 4 To Middle East 4 I 3 0 2 2 0 12 Italy 4 3 50 36 36 93 2 224 Totals : West. 8,028 ; Middle East, over 5,832 ; N.W. Africa and Italy, 4,630. fcib*fc Navy getting nearer to Nippon, and the news must be proportionately dis couraging to the Japanese war lords. The question now arises: Where is the Japanese battle fleet? Allied naval and air power in the Bismarck archipelago seems now to be absolute, and the Japanese have in places given up the attempt to dispute iit. Attacks by American destroyers ' and aircraft on Kavieng and Rabaul in New Ireland have recently met with no opposition from the once ubiquitous Zero fighter. Between 50,000 and 60,000 Japanese troops are said to have been isolated in New Ireland and New Britain, and scarcely any supplies can get through to them. Likewise in New BRITISH & U.S. AIR LOSSES TO FEB Feb. 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Over G.B. A'cft. 0 -0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Continent B'brs. F'trs. 31 3 17 8 41 15 0 1 85 II 59 4 0 0 233 42 Totals : West, 10,123 ; Middle Eas N.W. Africa and Italy, Middle East A'cft. 1 1 6 0 1 2 0 II t, about ,720. 26th Italy A'cft. 3 0 15 7 21 40 0 86 2,376 : FIGHTER TRIALS : Seafire trials being Illustrious. During flying-off an air flow Guinea, the Australians have found large numbers of Japanese bodies in a very emaciated state. If the enemy cannot find food for his very hard- living soldiers in the occupied islands, it follows that the shortage of muni tions must soon be acute. Turning to the naval side of the war in the far north-west, it has been announced that the Germans have evidently given up all intention of re pairing the ba±*te"-"cruis"er -Gneisenau, which is lyirfg in the Polish Gdynia in/no condition to put It seems" that a bomb droppej R.A.F. aircraft did the fij; whick convinced thet would\ ntot be wo^p^pl^\ltr> sperfd more mme-and tJPbnwo)tnat oftce- ^ GERMAN PRODUCTION GOES UP : The Junkers assembly factory at Bernburg in process of being destroyed. This photograph is typical of what has happened to many of the other German aircraft plants during the recent air offensive. carried out on the flight deck of H.M.S. of 30 knots over the deck is maintained. famous vessel. It can also be accredited to the Air Forces of Britain and the United States that Kiel is no longer the main German base. Her place has been taken by Gdynia. Aerial Pincers t '"PHE closing days of February saw a •*• positively startling development of bombing policy in western Europe. Not only did the two American forces J heavy bombers (the 8th in Britain and the 15th in the Mediterranean) work together in closing a sort of aerial pincers on Germany, but there was also the closest co-operation between the day bombing of the Americans and the night bombing of the R.A.F. In a number of cases they worked to gether on the same targets, and the attack of the one force had hardly died away before the inroad of the other began. On numerous occasions the incoming force found the fires lit by their predecessors still burning, and it then proceeded to liven them up and spread them further afield. Naturally these tactics exhausted all the elements of the German defences. Fighter pilots cannot carry on by day and night without rest, and the same- applies to the civil defence services. Schweinfurt, Leipzig, Augsburg and Regensburg have all been attacked in this way. The attacks have nearly all been directed against factories which make fighter aircraft or parts necessary for them. At the same time numbers of Ger man fighters have been shot down as they tried to drive the bombers away, and still more were destroyed on the ground near the factories. The Allied losses in bombers have not been light, but none the less their bomber strength is growing, while German fighter strength is certainly diminishing. At the same time German bomber bases have been raided by day by both British and American medium bombers.
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