FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1945
1945 - 1542.PDF
AUGUST 9TH, 1945 DOING HIS PREP. : A U.S. Marine Grasshopper, with a photographer on board, taking pictures of the next day's artillery and aerial bombardment targets.the AlR Destruction of Japanese Warships and Aircraft: Monsoon Flying in Burma IT is not surprising that the call fromPotsdam for the Japanese to sur-• render has produced no results or that the Japanese appeal to the Unitedx_ States to be merciful has evoked no ^-tesponse. The first attempts at peace* feelers seldom do produce results, and T all Asiatics love bargaining. Whether further moves in the same directionwill be made remains to be seen. The Japanese Prime Minister,Admiral Suzuki, has boasted that their aircraft production was much abovewhat had been expected ; but added that had this production taken placea bit earlier '' we would have avoided causing much. worry to variouscircles." Those circles are obviously not the fleets and Air Forces of theAllies, which have continued to cut down the output of the enemy's air-craft production. It is not out of the way for the totals of enemy aircraftdestroyed in a day to run into three figures, and it is notable that nearly allare destroyed on the ground. The American 3rd Fleet, with its Britishcomponent, has continued to steam along the coasts of Japan, shelling andbombing at its leisure. By last week- end at least two Japanese battleshipshad been spotted from the air in a crippled condition, one beached andthe other sunk. By now the once for- midable Japanese Navy may be writ-ten off as a serious fighting force. It has gone down without glory. Ger-many may take pride in the last hours of the Bismarck, which went downwith colours flying, after firing her guns until they were all silenced bythose of H.M.S. King George V. and the Renown. The Haruna and the Isemay have kept their colours flying, but none of their guns were fired intheir last hours, except perhaps the A.A. batteries. The American announcement that11 Japanese towns were next to be bombed was quickly made good. Sixof them met their fate two days after the warning. For the future the Japan-ese will have every reason to believe what the Americans say. * The heavy land-based, bombers donot always take off from Okinawa. It would be a long business to move allthe bases to that island. They some- times start from Guam* and refuel atanother island on the way. It is good news that the Chinesehave taken one of the airfields at Kweilin, the capital of Kwangsi pro-vince. That is still a good long way from Hong Kong, but it is on the way.It is absolutely necessary for us British to recapture Hong Kong for everyreason. Not least among them is the fact that many-British prisoners andcivilian internees are held there, and the Japanese are not remarkable forthe kindness with which they treat enemy nationals in their hands. For-tunately most of the British women in Hong Kong were evacuated to Austra-lia in good time. All last week the Japanese in Burmahave been striving to get to the Sitang river and across it. During the weekit is estimated that a good half of the whole force had been killed by theBritish and Indian infantry. The num- ber of prisoners taken was small; forone does not expect to take many
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
