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Aviation History
1945
1945 - 0703.PDF
APRIL 12TH, 1945 AIR AND THE RHINE CROSSING Their operation reports are a joy to read. Here are some quotations— '' Caught a Me 262 trying t© do a photo, recce, of the Wesel bridgehead on the day after the crossing. It never got near the Rhine." "Shot down an Fw 190 yesterday when Luftwaffe were incautious enough to make a rare error of judgment and fly into a piece of air already occupied by Tempests of and T.A.F." "On patrol to keep the Luftwaffe ground- borne." In the last six months this wing alone has destroyed 200 M.T., 136 aircraft, 61 locos., 2 barges and 63 trucks. Thousands of others have been damaged. The wing lost 61 pilots during this period. From the Tempest wing I moved on p the H.Q. of No. 84 Group, which is commanded by Air Vice-Marshal E. C. Hudleston, C.B., CrB.E., who was closely concerned with the land- ings in Sicily, Salerno, Anzio and Southern France. He is one of the first complete products of the R.A.F. to reach High Command. He passed through the R.A.F. College at Cranwell and, strangely enough. Sir Arthur Coningham, now A.O.C.-in-C. 2nd T.A.F., was then an instructor at the College. The group's job on the day of the crossing was to do anti-flak work for the airborne divi- sion, and to see no reinforcements were fetched in from Holland or the North. Previous to this the group had worked with Fighter Command on an extensive interdic- tion programme to cut off the Vi and V2 sites in Holland from their supplies. It was their work which relieved Ant- werp from continuous bombardment and allowed supplies to come through for the build-up. Aircraft of this group have attacked all sorts 01 enemy headquarters from Corps H.Q. down to Company H.Q. It was this group that blasted the H.Q. of Gen. Chris- tiansen at Zutphen. For this attack the Army Camouflage Unit made a model of the target area to a scale of one "LIKE THE GENTLE RAIN FROM HEAVEN" : Droves of paratroopers landing.in the Rees-Wesel area. The Fortress from which this photograph was taken was later shot down. inch to 52yd. This modei was used for training, briefing and de-briefing. The pilots of a wing of this group did tre- mendous anti-flak work for the airborne people. They claim 56 A.A. guns of all calibres put out of action, and, what is probably as important, they drew the fire or tem- porarily silenced the fire of many others. The group captain of this wing described the scene of the airborne landing as he saw it close up. " It was," he said, " like a fantastic set-piece at a Hendon display." Coloured chutes covered the ground in all directions; aircraft were going down afire; fighters were attacking flak positions, rockets were criss-crossing in all directions, and a smoke pall and haze covered all." He also said he had never seen such flak. At 10 o'clock when the barrage lifted there was no flak; by 10.15 a.m. it was very intense; by 10.30 a.m. it had subsided a great deal. The work of No. 2 Group will be described in our next issue. FEDERATION AERONAUTIQUE INTERNATIONALE HAROLD PERRIN, the secretary of the Royal Aero Club,has recently been over to Paris and met the Bureau of the Fed6ration Aeronautique Internationale, and discussed details I for the resumption of the activities of the Federation as soon as is practicable. Unfortunately, he was met with the news that the secretary general of the Federation, M' Paul Tissandier, had died the day before his arrival. M. Tissandier had been associated with the Federation since its inception in 1905, and had ren- dered a great service to international aviation. He was mainly responsible for the introduction -of the customs carnet for international travel by private aircraft, which was a great boon to our air tourists. In spite of the German occupation, all the records and archives of the Federation are intact. SUCCESS OF FAIREY AIRCRAFT SOME figures indicating the important part played by Sword-fish and Albacore aircraft in the Mediterranean area were given by Mr. Maurice E. A. Wright, A.F.C., F.R.Ae.S., when he presided over the adjourned sixteenth annual general meet- ing of the Fairey Aviation Co., Ltd., in London last week. With a striking force, based on Malta, of never more than 20 aircraft at any one time, he said, these two types sank or damaged more than 250,0013 tons of shipping vital to the enemy's African campaigns. Operating entirely at night in the critical year of 1942 preceding El Alamein, 160,000 tons of enemy shipping was sunk or badly damaged in 36 torpedo attacks. These figures, Mr. Wright added, related only to a smallpart of the full story, but nevertheless they indicated the rich dividends paid in war successes by aircraft designed and builtby their company for service with the Royal Navy. Details of the Barracuda and Firefly had, he reminded themeeting, been released during the past year, and it was a year ago to the day that the former had first come into the newswith its attack on the Tirpits, to be followed during the same month by a devastating attack at Sabang on the other side ofthe world. The Firefly had also made an excellent debut on both sides of the world. Very large numbers of Barracudashad gone into service, and the company's aircraft were to be found in the 40 escort carriers and the large Fleet carrierswhich were having such a mounting influence in the Royal Navy. The company was keeping fully abreast of the latesttechnical developments and was in a sound and strong position to meet the demands of the future. OFF TO CUBA MR. E. L. GANDAR DOWER, managing director of AlliedAirways, and one of the leaders of the group of inde- pendent airline operators, has left this country to attend the International Air Operators' Conference at Havana. He will represent The Association of British Aircraft Operators. "FLIGHT" INDEX THE Flight index for July-December, 1944, is now ready atis. or is. ijd. by post, ar with cloth binding-case at 4s. 6d. or 4s. rod. by post. Readers' copies can be bound at ?n inclusive cost of 13s. 3d., but present circumstances will occa- sion some little delay in the execution of such orders.
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