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Aviation History
1945
1945 - 0011.PDF
JAXUAEY 4T11, 1945 WAR IN THE AIR the Sabang area and the anchorage at- a place called Uleelhoe were attacked by Corsairs" and Hellcats. The British force suffered no casualties. The Japanese last week made their first surface attack on the Americans on Mindoro island, in the Philippines, but as the ships were approaching from the direction of Luzon they were spotted by a U.S. Navy Liberator. It reported that the enemy force com- prised a battleship, a heavy cruiser, and six destroyers. Bombers and fighters were quickly despatched to attack the enemy, and torpedo boats were also rushed up. The battleship and the cruiser were both damaged by bombs, and three of the destroyers were sunk. Thereupon the Japanese prudently retired. The absence of an aircraft carrier from this attacking force is worth noticing. " Japanese losses in that vital class of warship have been very heavy, and possibly the supply is now run- ning short. A carrier is not built in a day, and the Japanese shipyards are not the most efficient in the world. In any case the Japanese goose is only waiting to be cooked; if the yellow enemy now has to admit in- feriority in the air side of its naval power, the final' roasting should not take very long. An Admiral's Opinion ADMIRAL SIR BRUCE FRASER, ^ G.C.B., K.B.E., the C.-in-C. of the British Pacific Fleet, who is flying his flag in the new battleship H.M.S. Howe, has recently visited Admiral Nimitz at his headquarters at Pearl ON THE WAY IN : A twin-engined Mitsubishi •' Betty " falling into the sea afterbeing set on fire by a U.S. Navy Liberator. Harbour. On his return he made the following pronouncement: "I am in full accord with the American strategy of using large numbers of air- craft carriers. The country with the greatest sea-power must win the vtar. We have that sea-power. The Japan- ese are losing theirs." Those are the sentiments which have been consistently expressed in Flight, and it is gratifying to find the British naval C.-in.-C. in the Pacific concurring. Carrier-borne aircraft re- duce the handicap of enormous dis- tances in the Pacific Ocean, and in sea fights the American carrier aircraft have. shown themselves capable of winning a battle on their own. We feel confident that the^rf&«ers and men L BATHING THE CAT : The fire-fighting squad on the U.S. carrier Cowpens puttingout the flames of a Grumman Hellcat which was already on fire before it landed. of the Fleet Air Arm will prove iu no way inferior to their American brothers-in-arms. When the time comes for secrets to be. revealed, it will be very interesting to learn which carriers have been allocated to the British Pacific Fleet. The great battle in the West has reached a state (as we write) when the military commentators are anxiously asking themselves, " Who does what next? " The R.A.F. and its Ameri- can colleagues have no doubts. When • ever the weather permits flying their machines go off to strafe the Huns. One muster of enemy troops and in a valley near the town of Bastogne^as attacked by Lancasters just before daVp on the last day of 1944. Iaithat narrow valley it is not thouglrefr f nu Jflfle \hat the Germans ckly dispe lose of tie year was also ffanred 6y a serieyof raids by the U.S.r 8th Air Force car oil plants which we do not remember to have heard men- Honed before, but which have evi- dcntljj^Sfined importance recently as jetter-known plants have been heavily damaged, one after another. Nearly the whole of the Allied air effort has been directed towards de- priving the German Army of the means of carrying on the battle. But a foggy day gives the enemy .a chance to get a mass of stuff up to his firing line without interference—except from artillery shelling blindly at the roads. On New Year's Eve Berlin was bombed by the strongest force of Mos- quitoes ever sent there. The Gestapo H.Q. in Oslo was also attacked, by daylight, on the last day of the year. An attack on these H.Q. on September 25th, 1942, was the first introduction of the Mosquito to the British public. This time the leading machines hit the building and set it on fire, and the remaining Mosquitoes, unable to see the target clearly, came home with their bombs in their racks.
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