AERIAL FEINTS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 137, 12 June 1944, Page 3

AERIAL FEINTS

GERMANS DECEIVED Withholding Luftwaffe Grave Tactical Error Rec. 9.30 a.m. LONDON, June 11. Observers in New York feel that the invasion is proceeding as well as was anticipated considering the bad weather which handicapped the tactical air operations, pei\mitting the Germans to bring up reinforcements in the daytime, says the New York Times Washington correspondent. One factor of the Allied strategy which it is believed upset the Germans was the intense aerial feints in the sector across the Channel from Dover. These may have led the Nazis to believe that the blow was coming there instead of in Normandy. It is learned authoritatively that the Allied air power exceeded the scheduled softening up job. British and American planes dropped 166,940 tons of bombs on Continental targets in April and May, instead of 130,550 tons as scheduled. It is also learned that only one-third of the expected Luftwaffe opposition materialised on D day. Lieutenant-General Giles, Chief of the Air Staff, said the Germans had erred colossally through failure to use the Luftwaffe against the initial landings. "We expected air opposition and were surprised it did not develop. We had superiority, but if the Luftwaffe had chosen to fight we might not have had full command of the air. Furthermore, there were so many ships in the Channel that they could have sunk a good number of troop-laden transports." He added that now the Luftwaffe cannot hope to strike decisive blows. If the German tacticians had held back in the hopes of finding numerically a weak Allied Air Force after the invasion, they were sadly mistaken.