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Aviation History
1944
1944 - 2038.PDF
3&> WAR IN THE AIR forts round Metz, which are being besieged by the Americans. Fighters now carry a much heavier load of bombs than they were able to do a short time ago, but still one would like to hear of the heavy bombers taking a hand. That may happen soon, but the Channel ports have prior claim, and at the same time the bomber offensive against production is being maintained. Panther tanks have been found abandoned on the battlefields in the West, and marks on them showed that they had recently been delivered from' some factory straight to the front. That was a good sign, for it is evidence that the Germans are feeling their losses, and that the reserve depots are not able to supply the front in all cases. It there fore gives a good reason for bombing tank factories. A new fighting formation has re cently been in the news. It is called "Land Forces, Adriatic," and it works with the Balkan Air Force, as well as with the naval units in the Adriatic. There have been airborne and seaborne landings on the islands off the Dalmatian coast and in Albania. Forcing the Luftwaffe npOWARDS the end of last week more L than i ,000 Fortresses and Liberators le aSVattack one day on war indus tries in central Germany. That is the sort of operation which forces the vuffi to send into action its vindling body of fighters. But the * defafice had to adapt itself to the qmditions. The German fighters 3t attempt an all-out attack on the/ American bombers and their NOSE HEAVY : A ME 109 left on the airport at Antwerp which is now in Allied hands. escort. They concentrated their efforts on small elements of the bomber force, and they and the A.A. guns between them succeeded in bringing down 49 bombers and 12 fighters. Some of the missing fighters are believed to have landed in friendly territory. The American escort destroyed 26 of the German fighters, while the bombers shot down 10 more. It was a stiff fight.. The mere tale of losses on both sides would suggest that the Germans had the best of it; but the success of a bombing raid is not to be measured in that way. The American Army can afford such losses far better than the Germans can afford to lose so many fighters—even though some of the German fighter pilots may have got down alive on friendly soil. In -addi tion one must reckon the damage done by the bombs, which may well have FIREWORK DISPLAY : Rockets, from a South African Beaufighter of the Balkan Air Force, streak towards German barracks at Prenjese, Albania. exceeded in war value the American losses in machines. The Germans are believed to have been left with 60,000 troops of first line quality and some 40,000 garrison troops of inferior quality on the west side of the Nijmegen corridor, and their success in averting the threat of isolation which was represented by the presence of the 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem has, for the moment, left them with a comparatively free hand. Nevertheless, they showed distinct nervousness about the extension of the Allied corridor towards the west, and more air support was provided for their own forces on that side. A cer tain number of jet-propelled aircraft were noticed in the enemy formations, but no suggestion has come from the front that these machines have made any difference to Allied air supremacy. On the whole, the more we can force the Germans to fight in the air, the better it is for Allied prospects. There has also been some German air opposition to the Allied fighters and fighter-bombers which attacked gun positions and strong points in the area of Nijmegen and Arnhem and strafed road and railway transport behind the enemy lines in Holland. Many combats ensued, and the advan tage lay steadily with the Allied air craft. Into Germany T)ESPITE all difficulties and set- -*-' backs, both British and American troops have crossed the frontier into Germany. That was never done in the last world war, at lea^t on the Western front, and subsequent events showed that it was a great pity that the Allies did not advance and occupy Berlin, even though Hindenburg and Luden- dorf had compelled the German Government to sue for an Armistice. It was bad business to leave the Ger man people without ocular proof of the defeat of their army. In this war many German manufac-
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