AIR ESCORT TO NORTH AFRICA

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23799, 19 November 1942, Page 5

AIR ESCORT TO NORTH AFRICA

CONTINUOUS ALLIED PATROLS (8.0. W.) RUGBY. Nov. 17. The vital part played by the Allied air forces in convoying the vast armada to French North Africa has now been more fully described. Night and day, without respite from the day the first convoy left port, an unending stream of flying-boats and long-range landbased aircraft patrolled the Bay of Biscay, neutralising the Axis U-boat threat before it could develop. Probably not one aircraft was seen by the men on the troopships. The airmen were tackling the threat at its source, harrying the U-boats as they left French Atlantic ports while the ships sailed safely on far away to the west. This great air umbrella was laid by the Royal Air Force Coastal Command, assisted by the Bomber Command and the United States Army Air Force. Sunderlands, Liberators, Haiifaxes, Wellingtons, Whitleys and Hudsons all flew on Bay of Biscay patrols and Coastal Command Beaufighters intervened against German long-range fighters which attempted to intercept the British aircraft hunting U-boats, So complete was the secrecy surrounding the operation that not even the commanders of the, squadrons providing the protection against U-boats knew what was afoot. All they knew was that the greatest submarine hunt of the war was on. It was the same with the crews. They flew long and tiring patrols over the bay without sighting the ships, but they saw several U-boats and recorded some good sttflcks After the ships left Gibraltar the U-boats converged, and in just over an hour the Royal Air Force attacked three. Later that day two more Üboats were attacked within 10 minutes. Others were forced to crash-dive. The following day four submarines were attacked in the Mediterranean. The bows of one were blown into the air at an angle of 60 degrees. The submarine remained like that for four minutes and then sank. Bits of casing ot another U-boat attacked 20 minutes earlier were blown high into the air and a destroyer arrived to complete the task the aircraft began. To provide an escort on this scale had meant weeks of intensive organisation. New squadrons were moving in and new aerodromes had to be made operational in quick time.