NOW NEARLY FINISHED

Evening Star, Issue 25472, 1 May 1945, Page 5

NOW NEARLY FINISHED

HEAVY BOMBERS' TASK

OVER 14,000 ALLIED PLANES LOST

LONDON, April 30.

British and American heavy bombers based in Britain, whose task is now nearly finished, jointly lost more thau 95,000 flyers and 14,700 planes, says the ' Daily Express aviation correspondent. R.A.F. Bomber Command since the attacks against Germany began in May, 1940, lost 8,000 planes mostly Lancasters, Halifaxes, and Stirlings, and about 48,000 ilyers, but many of these prisoners are now returning home. The United States Eight Air Force, which did not really get going until the middle of 1943, lost 4,500 heavy bombers, each carrying 10'men, plus 2.200 single-seater lighters, making a total of 47,200 men. Bomber Command dropped 1,000,000 tons of bombs in five years and the Eight Air Force 630,000 tons in two years and a-half. The damage thus jointly caused to German cities and factories is estimated to take more than 20 years to repair. Fighter-bomber pilots to-day saw a great cavalcade of German vehicles of all types moving to the south in an area 40 miles east of Pilsen, says Reuter's correspondent at Allied headquarters in Italy. Allied planes attacked the convoy in relays, jamming columns along 15 miles of road, and destroying 260 horse-drawn vehicles, 35 motor vehicles, and 10 tanks.