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Aviation History
1945
1945 - 0211.PDF
FEBRUARY IST, 1945 A U.S. attack on the Japs in the Marshal! Islands. Bettys in the rear centre are warming up to take off and a gutted Zeke is in the foreground. On the extreme right a bomb is-skipping into a dispersal area, 'Akin, Pull-out from the Ardennes : Roads Blocked by T.A.F. : Russian Air Ascendancy in East Prussia : Luzon Airfield Captured ALIVE question at the moment iswhether • Hitler has orderedRundstedt to haul out all avail- able armour, guns, lorries and troops from the Ardennes and despatch them to the East Front, where the Russians are rolling forward and threatening Konigsberg, Danzig, Poznan, Bresla.u, and even Berlin itself, or whether Rundstedt is withdrawing from the Ardennes in order to strengthen his movement against Strasbourg. At any rate, the Germans in the Ardennes have not been standing on th,eir order of going, but have been making all speed to clear out. In weather which was not too bad for flying, this hurried retreat gave the Allied Tactical Air Forces another great opportunity. They swooped down on to the crowded roads, and wrought havoc. The German air cover was described as "hopelessly inade- quate," yet the procession moved on by day as well as it could. In one day the Americans destroyed 978 transport vehicles and damaged over 900 others. Pilots noticed that German drivers left their seats and dived for cover under low-flying attacks, but came back de- terminedly to their seats and started up their vehicles, if possible, so soon as the immediate danger was past. Obvi ously they had strict orders to keep moving if they possibly could, and at all costs. Squadrons which flew farther afield saw great numbers of fully-loaded trains, mostly running eastward and north-eastward from Dusseldorf. That, of course, suggested an attempt to re- inforce the crumbling East Front, whatever the cost in the West might be. In one day the 2nd Tactical Air Force destroyed 18 locomotives and damaged 70 others, besides hittingat other targets. In the last war aria^ " the early months of this one tMe Cfef- mans were able to move division- to and fro as they liked between tKe-£ast and West fronts, but now Allied air power makes such moves precarious and expensive. Even so, the risk must be taken and the price paid. There is probably no fear that popular discontent will hurl Hitler from his throne; but he must pay some attention to the state of mind of th.fi Qgrrnan people; and the ad- fnce of tneNRussians at such a great pace and onW> vjfide a front has frightened the^6erman population djg The broadcasters do n«£j*fennSt toiconceal the serious- THIS ENGLAND : Shovelling snow and ice off the mainplaae of a Lancaster «t aBomber Command station in England.
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