REMARKABLE FEAT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 67, 16 September 1943, Page 5

REMARKABLE FEAT

SICILIAN SHUTTLE SERVICE Rec. 12.40 p.m. RUGBY, Sept. 16.

R.A.F. fighters have flown 600 to 800 sorties daily over' the Sale'i-no beaches since the first Allied landings began. The bomber sorties during the same period probably amount to one-third to one-half of these figures daily.

It is not known whether fighters are yet using the mainland bases. Vibo, Valentia, south of the Gulf of Euf emia, would be a possibility, but even that is 160 miles away. Meanwhile, the maintenance of the "shuttle service" from Sicily is regarded here as a-remarkable achievement —an uneconomic operation rendered possible only by the strength of the forces available. Some aircraft are not of the type that can stay over the beaches for more than 20 minutes or half an hour from such a distance.

The German air activity has been restricted to moderate proportions, due partly to comparative lack of strength but also to wholesome respect for the R.A.F. fighters. Our night fighters too have been over the beaches with considerable success. The air fighting as a whole, however, ■. has been notning like as severe as in the opening stages of the invasion of Sicily.

Describing • the three main ways in which the air forces can help the land operations, an air commentator said that as well as the attainment of superiority and strategic bombing there is a third way—attacks on military objectives and communications in close support with the battle opera-, tions. There is a limit, however, to the intervention of aircraft in land battles against a determined and experienced enemy.—B.O.W.