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Aviation History
1945
1945 - 0737.PDF
and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IM THE WORLD .• FOUNDED WO9 Editor C. M. POULSEN Managing Editor G. GEOFFREY SMITH, M.B.E. War Correspondent JOHN YOXALL /v Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices: DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, S.E.1 Telegrams : Truditur, Sedist, London. Telephone: Waterloo 3333 (35 lines). COVENTRY: BIRMINGHAM, 2: MANCHESTER, 3: GLASGOW, C.2: 8-10, CORPORATION ST. N UA V " G LA T* V o" "N" "V T* 260> DEANSGATE- 26B, R EN F I ELD ST. Telegrams : Autocar, Coventry. Telegrams : Autopress, Birmingham! Telegrams: Iliffe, Manchester. Telegrams : Iliffe, Glasgow. Telephone : Coventry 5210. Telephone: Midland 2971 (5 lines). Telephone: Blackfriars 4412. Telephone : Central 4857. No. 1895. Vol. XLVII. Registered at the G.P.O. as a Newspaper. April 19th, 1945 Thursdays. One Shilling. We Outlook In the Pursuit AS the German power of resistance crumbles beforethe dashing advance of the Allies, it is interestingto study the role now assigned to various classes of aircraft. Obviously the thing to avert above all others is any sort of recuperation by the Luftwaffe which might endanger the supremacy in the air which has been won by the British and Americans. The Germans seem to have hoped that the production of jet-propelled fighters might restore to them some degree of power in the air. It is also clear that the Allies feel that such a prospect must not be disregarded. Accordingly, for some days past, reports from Ger- many have recorded one attack after another on bases fm which the new type has been operating. There been a concentration of effort on these targets,, almost to the exclusion of raids on oil and railways. The two latter objectives have been hammered so much and for so long that probably little harm will be done by turning the attention of our heavy bombers elsewhere for a while. ' Another salient feature of recent use of British air power has been Coastal Command's raiding of German shipping in the Skagerrak and Kattegat. It is believed that the Germans have in Norway some score of divi- sions. These must be supplied, and so there is a con- stant stream of supply ships steaming northwards from the Baltic and ports on the North Sea. But the Ger- mans, now hard pressed for manpower, and daily suffer- ing enormous losses at the hands of all the Allied armies, have an urgent need to withdraw some at least of those divisions for the defence of the Fatherland. Conse- quently there is a continual movement of transports with their escorts southwards. On both streams the Halifaxes of Coastal Command have been waging continuous war. The fight has gone on by night as well as by day, and Leigh lights have helped to set some of the ships on fire and send others to the bottom. Less novel, but still of the greatest interest, is the part played by aircraft in Italy in the new advance by the Eighth Army. The Senio river was a formidable barrier, and elaborate defences had been constructed. The infantry attack was preceded by a terrific bombardment of these defences by all available Allied aircraft, heavy as well as medium, and also light fighter-bombers. One novel feature, however, deserves special notice. The bombs were falling so close in front of the Allied posi- tions that the A.A. guns were used to mark the bomb line by firing shells upwards. The shells were fused so as to explode i,oooft. below the level at which the bombers were flying. Even so, one load of bombs fell on our own positions and caused some casualties. In the last war our own shells sometimes caught our infantry by mistake, and such mistakes will occasionally happen in war. But the German defenders were bombed out of all will to resist, and the difficult river crossing was made on a wide front. For a long time past the lines from the Brenner Pass have been bombed nearly every day, ahd now the Germans in Italy can have little to look forward to except death in the last ditch. Essen at LastE VERY day brings stirring news as the Allies ramp across Germany from West and East; but a parti- cular appeal to the springs of emotion was made by the news that an American Airborne Division has occupied Essen. For many decades the names of Essen and Krupps have represented the source of Germany's power of aggression. Memory goes back to the far-away days when the late Kaiser showed special favour to Fraulein
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