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Aviation History
1944
1944 - 1219.PDF
JUNE 15TH, I944 FLIGHT 653 D*Day Air News from the Notebook of our Correspondent Attached to Allied Expeditionary Air Forces MijL^Mmmm (Left) The great invasion armada of sh;ps of all shapes and sizes as seen from the air just prior to setting out for the Continent. (Above) Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander, with, on his right, Gen. Sir Bernard Montgomery who commands the Brifish, Canadian and U.S. Forces making the assault, and Air Chief Marshal S;r Arthur Tedder, Deputy Supreme Commander. * range of the invasion area, the enemy have avail able a force of some 500 bombers. This is not a great force when reckoned by to-day's standards, but, since a number of them are glide-bpmb-carrying Heinkel 177s, they could have wreaked considerable havoc on the shipping if there t*fl had not been an air cover of some 200 fighters all the time. On the airfields these spare tanks are in neat piles 'it most of the dispersal points. There are cylindrical types for Spitfires, Typhoons and Hurricanes ; slipper types to rit under the fuselage of Spitfires ; and streamlined tanks to go under the wings of Mosquitoes. The non-appearance of the Luftwaffe in any strength makes it appear as if we have over-produced these tanks because they are only dropped to in crease speed if a fight is imminent. A couple of dozen spares would have been ample for the A.E.A.F. on D- Day. The Goebbels aspect and the Goering aspect of the war have been shown to conflict somewhat. For some while past the former has been putting out stories of the invulnerability of the West Wall. Goering has been a good deal cleverer. He has been blowing up, mining or ploughing up all the air fields which lie close to the European coast so that we could not use them. This did not avail him much because there was a landing strip available for emergency use by D plus £. There had been rumours, unfortu nately not without foundation, of tragedies caused by sensitive trigger fingers and misrecognition of aircraft during the invasion of Sicily and Italy. Nothing of the kind has happened in this show. All aircraft which operate Map of the invasion area showing a*r mileages from lhe nearest point in England immediately north of the battleground.
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