PILOTS' BUSY DAY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 153, 30 June 1944, Page 6

PILOTS' BUSY DAY

OYER 600 SORTIES Planes Operating From France Maintain Attacks N Z.P.A. and British Wireless Reel 2 p.m. LONDON, June 29. Spitfire fighter and fighter-bomber pilots of the 2nd Tactical Force, operating from airstrips m France, had their busiest and most success ful day yesterday, when the} fl e over 600 sorties and destroyed,26 enemy aircraft, for the loss of seven, with one pilot safe. . After yesterdays victoues tne Luftwaffe was not in evidence a y this morning, but and attacking transport on roads ana hidden near hedges. By 10 a_m. they had destroyed 32 vehicles and dam ag A d correspondent at headquarters says pilots told him that no ti ains wprp running anywhere near the front line area and all marshalling yards appear entirely unserviceable. They also report hundreds of burnt-up vehicles by the roadsides and in vehicle parks. There does not appear to be a great number of vehicles on the move. Some destroyed this morning were armoured. Ranging over an area from Nan.es to Chartres, United States fighteibombers slashed railway tracks at important marshalling yards and shot up rolling stocks and oil and ammunition dumps this morning. These attacks, made by Lightnings and Thunderbolts previously grounded by unfavourable weather over the beachhead, were the first in two days. Lightnings, striking at Dreaux, in the Argentan-Chartres area, shot up 73 freight cars and scored 10 direct hits on the tracks. Thunderbolts strafed 19 locomotives, scored direct hits on the tracks, destroyed an ammunition dump and bombed an oil tanker tied up at a dock. All targets hit by the Thunderbplts were in the Nantes-St. Nazaire-Vitre area. All the United States planes returned. _ The Bth Air Force Fighter Command communique states that fighters during the first 23 days of the invasion destroyed 261 enemy planes, besides destroying or damaging over 100 on the ground. Marauders this afternoon broke into a gun duel to silence four German gun positions at Cap de la Hague. The Marauders swept in from 6000 feet. No guns were firing when the Marauders departed. The Air Ministry states that aircraft of the Bomber Command, with fighter cover, attacked flying-bomb installations in northern France this afternoon. Five of our bombers are missing.