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Aviation History
1944
1944 - 2078.PDF
/ 388 F L t'G H T OCTOBER I2TH, 1944 WAR IN THE AIR the main advanced U-boat base, though most of the pens there are still under construction. R.A.F. reconnais sance aircraft keep the authorities well informed of all such facts, and so last week a force of Lancasters and Hali- faxes was despatched to talk to those pens. They were escorted by fighters, and delivered their attack at 9.30 a.m. They were met by flak but not by fighters, and the bombing was reported to have been very accurate. Sub marines which were not in pens were also sighted and bombed, and it may be concluded that this effort still further eased the task of the escorts out in the Atlantic. New Bombing Tactics Mention has been made before in these columns of the increased accu racy of bombing during the last year. One result of this has been that now much smaller forces can be used, and yet the damage done has been as severe as in the larger raids of the past. The record for September shows that during that month a force of little more than 200 Lancasters destroyed in one night almost the whole of Darmstadt, which was a centre of German chemical industries and also a base for the German armies defend ing the Upper Rhineland. Naturally the employment of smaller forces re duces the risk of losses; and the greater accuracy of the bombing means that the damage is more strictly con fined to the military targets and does less harm to the civilian population. DojiHStlessXhe same considerations applywo Berljn, which was attacked AIRBORNE ARTILLERY : Troops operating the short-barrelled 75 mm. field gun which can be carried by glider. For stowage purposes the hinged trail folds over the barrel. six times during the past month by Mosquitoes. The latter dropped more than 100 bombs of the 4,000 lb. calibre. " The utility of the Tactical Air Force in France is ever on the increase, and the reputation of the rocket-firing Typhoons grows steadily. One inci dent is typical. Scottish troops were held up somewhere and asked for the help of Typhoons. The latter at once did their stuff, and immediately after the forward troops telephoned to the fighters' base: "Well done! You have completely demoralised the Hun. MAST HIGH : F/0. Lee and F/O. Sykes examine the three ft. long masthead of an armed trawler which they brought back embedded in the wing root of their Beaufighter after an attack on a German convoy. We are now going in to attack! " The- German prisoners taken came in white and shaken, and the Jocks who escorted them were all grinning with delight. The prisoners said : " We can stand shelling or machine-gunning ; but no more Typhoons." Landings in Greece T"HE Balkan Air Force and the •*- R.A.F. Regiment have played prominent parts in the combined operations which have brought British troops into Greece. Parachutists Jed the way and first of all landing strips were made ready. Then troops fol lowed in boats, and found Spitfires over their heads to guard against any German air attacks. But, in truth, the Germans are more anxious to get as many of their men as possible out of Greece and the Aegean islands, rather than to dispute with the British the mastery of that land. Escape from the islands must be a desperate affair. JU52S have been taking off from the islands at night; but many have fallen victims to the night-fighters of Middle East Com mand. Even by land escape cannot be a simple matter for the Germans, for if they trek northwards they are likelv to fall in with the Russian armies advancing through Rumania and Yugoslavia. Things have changed vastly since Crete was captured by German air borne troops, and Goring said that that success proved that the Germans could take any island. Far away in the East Indies, Xh? aircraft of Gen. Mac Arthur have been conducting a series of raids from New Guinea on to Borneo, paying special attention to the Japanese oil centre at Balikpapan.
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