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Aviation History
1945
1945 - 0535.PDF
MARCH 22ND, 1945 FLIGHT 303 WAR IN THE AIR has been successful in getting the bulk of his forces over the Rhine. But to prevent the Allies from following him is qufte a different matter. South of Mayen the Americans re- cently captured a site for launching flying bombs. The civilians in the neighbourhood said that the first 11 launched from there had only travelled about a mile each, and then had ex- ploded, doing much damage. The story has also been told that German defaulters are now condemned to join squads foi launching rocket bombs, a job which is evidently considered especially dangerous. It is to be hoped that the story is true. Round Danzig the Red Air Force has been busy, and has started many fires in the towns which the Russian armies have approached as they close in. The same applies also to the ad- *"vixnce on Stettin. The storming of Aiistrin has once more awakened all the German fears for Berlin—though one can imagine that many dwellers in the place would be only too glad to have it occupied, as that woftld put an end to the relentless series of attacks by Mosquitoes with their 4,000 1b. bombs. German air-raid shelters are very solid, we have been told ; but to live in one constantly for months on end must be a very sordid existence. Superb Teamwork '"THE fine weather of last week-end -*• brought a terrific hustling of the Germans in the Battle of the Rhine. In the words of the correspondent of The Times on the Moselle front, " We are again witnessing superb teamwork by armour, infantry, artillery, and the Tactical Air Forces." Gen. Patton has again been given .a chance to show his taste for speed, and his armour has been ranging over the area between the Moselle and the Rhine. The 19th T.A.F. has reported that the Germans were fleeing eastward in great con- fusion, many of their columns evi- i dently not knowing what was happen- ing or where the Americans were. Some of the enemy columns were blindly heading in directions which would lead them into the worst pos- sible trouble. Their commanders must bitterly regret the incapacity of the Luftwaffe to provide them with any information. A shadow of coming events was cast by Gen. Eisenhower's warning to the inhabitants of Frankfurt-on-Main, Mannheim, and Ludwigshafen, urging them to fly from the wrath to come. Heavy bombers are going to deal with those cities. While the battle raged in the air and on the ground, Berlin on last Sun- day suffered its heaviest daylight attack to date, when 1,300 heavy bombers from the U.S. 8th Air Force spent over an hour raining down sal- voes of 30 tons of bombs every 30 to ACCELERATED TAKE-OF : A sequence of three photographs showing a Seafiremaking an accelerator-assisted take-off from the flight deck of an aircraft carrier. At the bottom the Seafire is being attached to the trolley. The windshields areraised to make working conditions reasonable as there is always 30 knots of wind over the deck. In the middle photograph the Seafire is being accelerated. Wingflaps are down about 20 deg. At the top the trolley has reached the end of its travel and collapsed forward. The Seafire is flying and the wind indicator steam jet ismomentarily blown off centre by the slipstream. 40 seconds on railway yards near the centre of the city, and the great arma- ment plants in the suburbs. Night brought no relief to the place, for Mos- quitoes then raided it. Bomber Com- mand Lancasters made some daylight attacks on benzol plants in the Ruhr, and in all directions the air power of the Allies was brought to bear on Ger- many. Bomber Command seems now to work as much by day as by night; although Commander Brabner, the new Under-Secretary for Air, told the House of Commons the other day that under the latest developments it had been found that it was probably more accurate to bomb at night than by This terrific air activity by the Allies seems to have prodded the enemy into sending normal bombers ouce more over northern England. They used fragmentation bombs, which do little harm to buildings but are meant to kill people, and they did kill a certain number. Coastal Command was also busy over the week-end. On Saturday night numbers of E-boats stole out into the North Sea, but were promptly spotted by some patrolling Wellingtons. They called up the Navy, which sent out a force which quickly drove the E-boats back. They turned and fled, but were pursued by Wellingtons from Great Britain, and intercepted by naval Swordfish from Belgium. The precise results of our attacks could not be identified; but the object of the E-boats was clearly defeated.
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