AIR FORCE AND NAVY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 20, 25 January 1943, Page 5

AIR FORCE AND NAVY

GREAT SHARE IN CAMPAIGN

RUGBY, January 23. Unrelenting and shattering blows were delivered against the enemy by the Allied air forces throughout the 90 days of the victorious campaign. During that period, 507 enemy aircraft were destroyed in the air, and our losses were 335. Altogether the campaign in the Middle East has cost the German and Italian air forces about 6000 aircraft—4ooo in combat and 2000 destroyed on the ground. ..The part played by the Royal Navy in the campaign was of the greatest importance. A Cairo correspondent comments that the brilliant victories of the Eighth Army would never have been achieved without the equally brilliant and patient work of the Navy. Before the jßattle of El Alamein, parties were detailed and waiting at Alexandria for dispatch to Sollum, Bardia, Tobruk, Benghazi, and Tripoli successively, and minesweepers were ready to clear the captured ports. Petrol and water were landed almost before the dust of the enemy's retreat had settled along the line of march. Invasion craft were used by the Navy as "maids of all work" for advanced supply parties.

The Navy's part, however, was principally as an offensive weapon. Sweeps were made by cruisers and destroyers, and mosquito craft often went inshore to take part in an attack on the retreating enemy, and keep coastal defences in a constant state of jitters. December's bag for the eastern-Mediter-ranean was 2 destroyers, 16 supply ships, 1 U-boat, 1 armed merchant cruiser, and one schooner sunk, and 2 destroyers and 19 supply ships badly damaged.—B.O.W.