LONG SHUTTLE RUN

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 24, 28 July 1944, Page 5

LONG SHUTTLE RUN

ITALY-RUSSIA AND RETURN (U.P.A. and 8.0. W.) Rec. 11.50 a.m. LONDON, July 27. Mustang and Lightning long-range fighters have returned to Italy after the first three-day fighter shuttle run between Italy and Russia during which they shot down 64 German planes over Rumania and Poland and " destroyed many more on the ground, for the total loss of two of their own number, says Reuters Rome correspondent. Fighters on Tuesday participated with Russian planes in an attack against Mielec aerodrome, in Poland. United States headquarters announced that Liberators escorted by Mustangs, Lightnings, and Thunderbolts attacked military targets in the Brussels area today. The bombing was visual. No enemy aircraft were encountered. The escorting fighters went down to attack ground targets, including locomotoves and freight cars. One bomber and one fighter are missing. . The R.A.F. Second Tactical Air Force states that the crews of R.A.F. and Dutch Mitchells had spectacular proof of the accuracy of their bombing last evening when bombs struck a great petrol store on the southern fringe of the forest of Fontainebleau. BUDAPEST PLANT BOMBED. Medium forces of escorted heavy bombers today attacked the Manfres Weiss steel works in Budapest, the largest industrial plant in Hungary producing aircraft engines, arms, ammunition, machine tools, and other metal products, says a Rome correspondent. The works were attacked previously by R.A.F. night bombers. The crews report good bombing, and encounters with enemy aircraft. Three enemy airfields and aircraft engine factories at Wiener Neudorf were the targets of Liberators and Fortresses which attacked the Vienna area yesterday. During a running battle through southern Austria and northern Yugoslavia many enemy fighters were destroyed. An oil refinery at Berat, in Albania, was also bombed with good results. In attacks on communications in Italy and Yugoslavia, one squadron of Mustangs knocked out 38 locomotives in sweeps around the Zagreb area, bringing the total number of engines disabled in a fortnight to well over 100. Another formation included six troop trains in its day's bag. A communique issued in Italy says that in yesterday's air operations involving attacks on objectives in the Vienna area, Albania, northern Yugoslavia, the Ploesti, and Bucharest areas in Rumania, and northern Italy, 78 enemy aircraft were destroyed. Twenty-two of ours are missing.