INTENSIFIED AIR OFFENSIVE

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 53, 26 November 1941, Page 7

INTENSIFIED AIR OFFENSIVE

Reply To Axis Effort LARGE ENEMY FORCE ROUGHLY HANDLED (British Official Wireless and Press Assn.) (Received November 25, 7 p.m.) LONDON, November 24. The Cairo correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain states that Hurricanes on November 22 badly handled a German force comprising 30 dive-bombers escorted by 20 fighters.- They shot down eight and damaged many others, and the remainder jettisoned their bombs and fled. The aeronautical correspondent of “The Times” says that the safety and mobility of the R.A.F. squadrons is considerably inci eased by the employment of their own armoured car companies, which protect the transports taking supplies to the new aerodromes. Reconnaissance flights over a period of months searched out tracts of country suitable for advanced landing fields, and as the ground forces advance the R.A.F. fighter squadrons are able to accompany them. The British United Press correspondent with the R.A.F. at desert headquarters says that the violence of the R.A.F. attack has increased correspondingly with the new activity of the enemy air reinforcements. Empire planes are on the ground only for refuelling, and air battles rage from Jarabub to the sea. . . , As many as 50 planes have engaged in simultaneous dog-fights. Closer Air Scoring.

Tonight’s R.A.F. communique reports the destruction of 18 enemy aircraft in operations which included the Malta and East African zones, with 13 of our aircraft missing.

Reporting the Western Desert operations, the communique states: “Further successful operations in support of our,offensive in Libya were carried out by our aircraft yesterday. In the hattie area our fighters were particularly active, and five Junkers 87, five Messerschmitts 109, and one G5O were shot down. Many enemy dive-bombers and fighters were severely damaged. “Low-level machinegunning attacks were made on enemy aircraft on the ground in the Barce area, where four Savoias 79 were destroyed. Another Savoia 79 was shot down by our lighters in an unsuccessful attempt by the enemy to raid one of our landing grounds. “Co-operating with the Imperial land forces, R.A.F. and S.A.A.F. bombers made a series of raids on enemy tanks, motor transport and personnel in the ■battle zone. Direct hits. were . obtained on armoured fighting vehicles and motor transport in the El Gubbi area, where our bombers shot down one Messerschmitt 109. The road from El Adem to El Gubbi was also heavily bombed. Further concentrated raids in which a squadron of Free French bombers took an active part were carried out in the vicinity of El Adem. Night Bombing Attacks. “On the night of November 22-23 our bombers raided the aerodromes at Benina and Berea. At Benina a large fire was started in aerodrome buildings and considerable damage was done to petrol installations. At least one enemy aircraft was seen to burst into Hames on the ground. At Berea direct hits were scored on buildings and motor transport in the dispersal area and bomb dumps. Fires and explosions were observed. “Other bombers were active over Tripoli and G azala. At the lastnamed objective a large petrol dump was destroyed.” The longest air battle between fighters in the Western Desert took place south of Tobruk at dusk on November 22. For more than an hour Tomahawk fighters of an Empire squadron, composed of British, South African, Canadian, New Zealand and Australian airmen, fought an equal number of Messerschmitts, and the battle ended only when the Germans broke off as darkness came on. It is known that only one Tomahawk crashed. The enemy lost at least three Messerschmitt 109’s and at least six others were seriously damaged. A dispatch from a news agency correspondent on the Libyan front gives the account of one pilot of what happened. Enemy Troops Fire. “We were heading north when we saw them coming out of the sun toward ns,” he said. “They climbed above us and started diving, five of them at a time trying to get us one by one. They would not come very near, and one of us would come out of formation aud give a couple of bursts and beat off the attack. “In order to prevent their diving we came down lower and lower. By that time land troops had opened fire on us. We had Messerschmitts above us and the attack below. “One of our chaps stopped back for a while, breaking off from the formation and machinegunning the troops, but the enemy kept up the fight till it was almost dark.” During the morning the same squadron escorted Blenheims which went out to bomb a retreating Italian mechanized force. The Tomahawks were Hying in formation, giving close support to the Blenheims, and enemy lighters which went to attack the bombers were all put to liight.