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Aviation History
1944
1944 - 2077.PDF
OCTOBER IZTH, 1944 IN THE EAST : A Fairey Barracuda ber'ng towed to its dispersal point on a Fleet Air Arm airfield in India. In the hangar in the background is a Grumman Avenger. Knightfs Move Bombing : The U-boats at Bergen : Smaller t Bomber Formations Now the Fashion : Parachute Landings ONE great difficulty of the German air defence organisation is the shortage of fighters. Another is the difficulty of guessing the direction from which the next attack by Bomber Command or the U.S. bomber forces will come. How could any German commander guess that an attack on the battleship Tirpits in the Norwegian fiord of Kaa would come from a Russian base near Archangel? The whole of Europe is now a sort of chessboard on which the heavy bombers of the United Nations move about with all the ingenuity of a knight at chess. No doubt the Germans had recon naissance machines constantly in the air keeping a look-out for the approach of Lancasters from Great Bg*>avn, and they must have been hcffribly surprised when the attack came from the opposite direction. The strike on the Tirpitz with a 12,000 lb. bomb, which was at first something in the nature of a pious hope, has since been confirmed by photographs, and it will be more than surprising if that once formidable battleship takes any further part in the war. Not hers to go down gamely with her guns firing, as was the fate of her sister ship the Bismarck. The battleships of the Home Fleet will be disappointed ; but a possible danger to our Atlantic con voys has been removed, and doubtless British lives have been saved. It is undoubtedly one of the func tions of Bomber Command to reinforce the Navy on occasions; and this was one case of its giving most potent aid. Incidentally, the flight of the Lan casters carrying their bombs on a jour ney of 1,750 miles to the Russian base was a record for length with such a load. Another agreeable feature of the adventure was the warmth of the welcome given by the Russians to the British airmen during their stay of four days. Another place in Norway has acquired increased importance as a tesult ol the Army's capture of the Biscay ports in France. Bergen is now MULT1 - BARRELLED : The latest version of the B25 Mitchell, carries 18 machine guns. Fourteen of these can fire forwards.
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