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Aviation History
1944
1944 - 1629.PDF
AUGUST IOTH, 1944 > WAR IN THE AIR than mere concussion. The Germans say that Rommel met with a car accident as a result of an air raid, and they may be telling the truth for once. Both, versions agree that air craft were responsible. Congratula tions to Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory! Concussion is not likely to make Rommel's brain any more wily in its efforts to counter the manoeuvres of Gen. Montgomery. Rommel is a clever soldier, but Montgomery has j always beaten him. The odds on Sir Bernard are longer now. Turkey TURKEY and Russia are old * opponents. They were old oppo nents at the time of the Crimean War and at the time of the " Jingo " T *song. In the early days of this war a correspondent who knew Turkey wrote that if it were a simple quarrel between Germany "and Russia, Turkish sympathies would certainly be on the German side. But Turkey had made a treaty with Britain, and the Turks are a nation which stands by its word. So they remained benevolently neutral. No doubt the German cam paign in Greece brought it home to the Turks that their Army was de ficient in modern weapons, and was really in no condition to stand up to German Panzer divisions. Now, however, that those formid able German armies are manifestly beaten on all sides, Turkey has broken off diplomatic relations with Germany. Presumably that will mean that the Allies will be able to use naval bases and airfields in Asia Minor for operations against the Ger mans in the ^gean Sea. That should TANKS FOR THE BUGGY RIDE : Sqn. Ldr. T. F. Kyle driving a captured German robot beetle tank out of which the explosive charge has been removed and a seat installed. help towards the liberation of Greece. The faction fights among Greek par ties have somewhat sullied the fair fame of the nation ; but they have not obliterated the memory of the heroic stand which the Greek Army made against the legions of Mussolini. The Greeks have suffered horribly at German hands, and the number of deaths from starvation has been appalling. To set that gallant country free is very near to Britain's heart. Turkey, too, looks forward to working with Greece in setting up a Balkan federation which should help to secure lasting peace in one of the most troubled areas of Europe. German Oil Supplies T^HE blockade enforced by the Royal -*- Navy seldom gets much credit until a war is over, and in this war the task of the Navy has been more difficult than it was in the last. The Ministry of Economic Warfare has stated that since the entry of Russia into the war no oil supplies have reached Germany by evading the blockade or through neutral sources. The limited stocks in existence have had to be drawn upon recently to meet the deficiency caused by Allied bombing on current output. The enemy has suffered a substantial loss as a result of the bombing of his storage tanks, dumps and tank-cars in transit, and there is no doubt that for months past Germany's war effort has been handicapped by lack of oil. Everyone has noticed the attention which Allied bombers, both from Britain and from the Mediterranean, have recently been paying to Ploesti, to Leuna, and to other important centres. The Navy and Air Forces have worked together to some effect. FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT AT S.H.A.E.F. A HIGH-RANKING officer of the U.SA.A.F. who had taken a hand in planning the operation and who had also been an eye witness of the American break-through west of St. Lo described to correspondents the general layout of the attack. The best way of describing it is to liken it to the growing point of a plant which pushes through the crust of earth and then fans out. while the inside of the bud grows on. In actual terms, the infantry pushed through a soft gap made by the air forces and held this funnel-shaped area while further in fantry and a> force of armour passed through to the enemy back areas. The jumping-off point was a length of some five miles of the straight St. Lo-Perier road, which formed a bold and easily found bomb-line for the air forces to work to. The American troops were withdrawn some 1,500 yards and, 80 minutes before H. hour, the ball opened with seven groups, each of 36 fighter-bombers, dropping a load of fragmentation and 500-lb. general-purpose bombs. These were followed by 1,508 heavies, which took an hour to drop their load. As a final attention to the break-through area— to destroy in detail what the mediums and heavies had missed—eight groups of fighter-bombers made low-flying attacks. The time which must always elapse between the last bomber going home and the troops advancing into the cleared area, covered by an artillery barrage, is always a critical period. To prevent the enemy moving up any immediate reserves to fill the gap, the medium bombers of the 9th U.S.A.A.F. put in a further 45 minutes' bombing of the roads just south of the area. Bombs for the Gap The bomb figures are interesting; altogether 2,423 aircraft dropped 61,951 bombs of a total weight of 4,302 tons. These bombs varied from the 500-lb. instantaneous-fused H.E. bombs to the tiny, but very effective, 23-lb. fragmentation bomb. For the area covered, the attack worked out to an intensity of 10 bombs per acre. It is not surprising that most of the prisoners taken from this area were " bomb happy." As is almost inevit able in such circumstances, there were a few " shorts " which fell behind the American lines. These, however, were not due to a miscalculation in navigation, but to a material failure in one of the leading Marauders of a formation. To prevent a repetition of the armour and infantry being held up by concealed screens of anti-tank and machine guns, the tanks had been fitted with radio sets. These enabled the tanks to make direct requests to aircraft for specified targets to be hit. A close-up of these operations as seen by a fighter-bomber pilot was also given at headquarters by Maj. R. W. La Roque, who commands a Thunder-
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