R.A.F. MAINTAINS LONG LEAD

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 110, 3 February 1941, Page 8

R.A.F. MAINTAINS LONG LEAD

Month’s Air Losses In All Theatres (British Official Wireless.) (Received February 2, 7 p.m.) RUGBY, February 1. The following figures compiled from official communiques show the aircraft' losses in the various theatres of war during January. Over Britain and British coastal waters the Germans lost 23 aircraft and the British one. Over enemy and enemy-occupied territory the Germans lost seven aircraft and the British 18. At sea the Germans had no losess and the British lost one. Over the Mediterranean fronts, including Africa, Albania and Malta, the enemy lost 87 in the air and 97 on the ground, and the British lost 14. There were 41 alerts in the London area in January, lasting 88 hours. The alerts since the outbreak of the war total 1268 hours. There were 18 nights last month without an alert. Except on the Albanian front the air operations in the European theatre of war have been on a small scale during the week ended January 31. Because of extremely adverse weather conditions on four nights out of the seven no bombing operations were carried out over Germany or occupied territory by the Royal Air Force. On the other nights industrial targets were bombed, and both Wilhelmshaven and Lorient were visited. No losses were sustained by the R.A.F. aircraft engaged in the operations. Australian Decorated. Among the R.AJ,'. personnel who have taken part in the desert fighting recently to win awards is Wing Commander 1. D. Maclachan, who has received the Distinguished Flying Cross. He is the first officer of the Royal Australian Air Force in the Middle E-.st command to be decorated. “The fine feats.” the R.A.F. headquarters in the Middle East announces, “carried out by this officer have largely contributed to the high morale of our forces.” Flying Officer E. M. Mason is another recipient of the D.F.C. On . January 26 he attacked a formation of nine machines which were about to make an onslaught on our forward forces and in seven or eight minutes he had shot down three. Under the leadership of Squadron Leader E. M. Dunn, who also is awarded the D.F.C., two different squadrons destroyed 68 enemy aircraft with 10 others unconfirmed. A young pilot officer who just returned to Britain from Libya had a great reception when he spoke to hundreds of aircraft workers engaged in making iiir filters for tlie use of R.A.F. machines in the east. He brought his squadron’s thanks for the work these people had done, which, he said, bad enabled their planes to be flown successfully under desert conditions. Italian Inferiority. “You work hard here and get no fuu,” he went on. “You.get bombed, but we go up and get tlie fun.” Speaking of his experiences against the Italians, the pilot said he had never seen fewer - than 27 , enemy machines together, and once his squadron ran into a formation consisting of one Italian bomber escorted by 57 fighters. “On another patrol 13 of us met 37 Italians,” lie said. “Seven of them turned tail and lied without putting up any fight, and then we shot down 15 in eight minutes, losing two machines ourselves.”