AIR CO-OPERATION

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 19, 23 January 1943, Page 5

AIR CO-OPERATION

REMARKABLE FEATS

(Rec. 10 a.m.) RUGBY, Jan. 22. Moving up almost in sight of enemy ground parties, British advanced fighter units in Tripolitania are doing magnificent work in preparing new landing grounds. Never in the last few days of the advance on Tripoli has the Eighth Army been without the co-1 operation of forward squadrons, and! this is almost entirely due to R.A.F. mobile columns, who strike forward to take over evacuated enemy airfields, and in some cases have created new landing grounds out of the scrub. One example was the way Allied fighters were enabled to operate from landing grounds in the Bir dv Fan area within a hundred miles of Tripoli. Aircraft and key personnel of a complete fighter formation, which includes an American pursuit group, were brought forward 140 miles at one hop. One landing ground 1200 yards square was serviceable three hours after the advance ground parties had selected the site.

Allied air forces from Malta, Tunisia, and Tripolitania are hammering Rommel's withdrawing forces. The ploughing up of the Castel Benito aerodrome was interrupted by air attack, and all the ploughs were put out of action. — 8.0. W.