HEAVY TOLL

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 275, 20 November 1944, Page 5

HEAVY TOLL

ALLIED OFFENSIVE Powerful Air Raids On Battlefront And Reich British Official Wireless Rec. 1 p.m. RUGBY, Nov. 19. Further reports from the United States Eighth Air Force fighter pilots, who carried out widespread strafing attacks on southern Germany on Saturday, shew that 27 enemy aircraft, including one jetpropelled Messerschmitt 262, were destroyed in combat, and at least 64, including more than 30 jet-propelled, were destroyed on the ground. In addition pilots reported 31 locomotives destroyed and ten damaged, 24 railway cars destroyed and 290 damaged, 42 oil cars destroyed and ten damaged, besides considerable damage to property and enemy installations. From an operation in which approximately 400 Thunderbolts and Mustangs took part over Munich, Augsburg, Ludwigshafen, Frankfurt and Lake Constance areas of Germany, eight of our aircraft are missing. At least 33 jet-propelled planes were among the 86 enemy planes destroyed during the raid, which was one of the deepest daylight strafing penetrations that American fighters have made against airfields, oil storage centres and military targets in southern Germany, says a United States air communique. The R.A.F., in addition to bombing Munster and Wanneeickel on Saturday, also attacked objectives at Hanover and Wiesbaden, and night intruders attacked airfields well behind the enemy lines; One aircraft of Bomber Command is missing. Mosquitoes of the Second Tactical Air Force, ranging in front of the Allied armies, bombed and strafed a large number of targets in western Germany during the night.