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Aviation History
1944
1944 - 1409.PDF
JULY 13TH, 1944 FLIGHT Bombing-up a Vengeance of the Indian Air Force operating over Burma. WAR. i Fighting for Airfields : Mining the Kiel Canal : The Passing of the Swordfish : Hitler Intervenes THERE have been many cases in the double war against Ger many and Japan in which the object of the fighting has been the possession of an airfield. The Ameri can and Australian operations among the Pacific islands have probably provided most instances. It is, of course, always important to deny the use of an island airfield to the enemy, but some while ago there was also an intense desire on the part o* the Americans to seize an airfield from which they could operate shore- based aircraft. Of late there seems to be less cer tainty that shore-based aircraft are invariably very superior to ship- borne aircraft, provided that plenty of carriers can be brought into action. The time has not yet come when very heavy bombers can work from a carrier, and for them a shore base is obviously desirable, but for other classes the reputation of carrier-borne machines has lately been in the ascendant. That, however, is by the way. Our thoughts turn rather to the time when an invasion of Great Britain seemed a possibility, and the question of defending our own airfields against attacks by airborne German forma tions caused many searchings of heart. They resulted in the raising of the Royal Air Force Regiment, and the issuing of some rather confused in structions about how the responsi bilities of the Air Force and the Army were to fit in or overlap. In Normandy the Germans seem to have taught us, in the case of the airfield of Carpiquet, that it is (as the special correspondent of The Times puts it) extremely difficult to capture an airfield from determined defenders in well-sited pits. The fighting there called for the greatest determination on the part of the Canadians who were making the attack. These Dominion men are, as they were in the last war, notorious for their grim determination. The Versatile Mosquito TVJINE-LAYING has been added to the other accomplishments of the Mosquito. About a month before D-Day it was desired to block the Kiel Canal and hold up German traffic through it. The Canal had been mined before, with very good results, but its defences have been constantly improved. Mines have to be dropped from a very low altitude, and if four-engined bombers were used they would run great risks of flying into the cables of the balloon barrage as well as from flak. But it was found that if the normal mines were modi fied, they could be carried and dropped by Mosquitoes. The smaller size of these machines gave them a better chance of getting through, and their great speed also enhanced their
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