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Aviation History
1945
1945 - 0008.PDF
WAR IN THE AIR been met by the British and Americansfor a long time before. But its effect was inconsiderable. Formations of 50machines were seen here and there; but they could do little against theoverwhelming numbers of the British and Americans. In fighting quality,too, nothing happened to upset the verdict of the Battle of Britain, whenthe R.A.F. was outnumbered but still mastered the Luftwaffe. Sir ArthurTedder must have had a very busy time arranging it all; but he is usedto busy times, and all went well— though he must have longed for thehelp of the lamented Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory. Long-term policy was not neglectedwhile this mighty battle raged, though Bomber Command and the 8thAir Force had, quite rightly, to con- centrate their efforts on Rundstedt'srear. General Spaatz has another string to his bow, in the 15th AirForce based in the Mediterranean. It made its contribution by attacking oilplants and other targets in Austria, which might have tried to top up thewaning supplies of fuel in the Battle in the West—the JEJnine Battle seemse for it, for when an p^the German a Allied riposte Eisenhower's and perhaps wsekmeht^pi one ingkry. ish cli ally fails the any General the Rhine, untied i>rated Christmaseting the encircle- Capital, Budapest.,ow the last satellite Germany's coat-tails; F LIGHT TURNING ON THEHEAT: Using hot air to warm up the NapierSabre of a Typhoon dur- ing intense cold weatherin Holland. but we may rememberthat in the first world war the Austro-Hungarian Empire was an equal partner andAlly of German ', and that Budapest was oneof its two main Capital cities. Vienna alonetook some sort of pre- cedence of it in whatsome British statesman called the '' ramshackleEmpire," and now Vienna is not theCapital of anything. Something will have tobe done about that when Hitler's regime isover. As usual, the RussianAir Force is the silent service, but corre-spondents have told how the Russian air-craft have been diving at the guns placed inthe parks of Budapest. We may speculate also as to whether the mas-tery which the Russian Generals have shown over the Germans in manoeuvreand surprise has not been largely due to the Red command of the air.Marshals Malinovsky and Tolbukhin seem to have known at all stageswhere their opponents were, and there- fore what they were likely to do ; whilethe German Generals appear to have been enveloped in the fog of war. Air EVASIVE ACTION : A Japanese destroyer jinking to avoid bombs trom an attackby U.S. Mitchells on enemy shipping in Ormoc Bay, Leyte. superiority can make that difference. On December 27th Tokyo wasbombed once more by Superfortresses based on Saipan. The attack tookplace at noon, and seems to have made a great impression on the Japan-ese, judging by the fairy stories they put out about the damage which theysaid they had inflicted on the raiders. The U.S. Pacific Fleet has made an-other combined sea-air attack on Iwo Jima, in the Volcano Islands, whichare half-way between the Marianas and the Japanese homeland. Addq£'to this, thfe U.S. Navy has announce 27 new sinkings of Japanese vessels bysubmarines. One of the victims was a large aircraft carrier, the first of itskind to be sunk by a submarine. The British Navy likewise has notbeen idle in eastern waters. Not long ago it made a sea-air attack on Japan-ese positions at the western end of Sumatra. On the morning of Decem-ber 20th, it has recently been an- nounced, it sailed further afield andattacked the harbour of Belawan-Deli on the east coast of that great island,and also went for oil installations in the area. No mention has been madeof fire by the guns of the ships; the whole attack was apparently carriedout by aircraft. Avengers, bombing from 1,500 feet, scored hits on jetties,warehouses and railway yards. Fighters meanwhile set fire to an oiltank and a petrol tank. The weather was bad, and flying was difficult, andresults could not be fully observed. One enemy bomber was shot down bya Hellcat. That was not a bad morning's work ; but in the afternoon airfields in
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