R.A.F. OFFENSIVE

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 June 1943, Page 5

R.A.F. OFFENSIVE

BELGIUM AND N. FRANCE

SIX ENEMY LOSSES

RUGBY .June 11. R.A.F. fighters were over France and Holland to-day .on offensive sweeps, during which they destroyed three enemy fighters. They also escorted Venturas to attack coke ovens and benzole installations at Zeebrugge, states the Air Ministry. The Venturas scored direct hits on the targets, and thick black brownish grey smoke indicated benzole fires. There was heavy flak over the targets, and also over St. Omer and other heavily-defended areas. Enemy fighters offered no opposition, but came up to meet Spitfires, which later swept Abbeville, St. Pol, and Berck areas. The Spitfires, which included a New Zealand pilot, emerged from the dog fights without loss, after destroying two Messerschmitts and one Fockewulf.

BAD WEATHER’S EFFECTS

LONDON, June 11. “Bad weather over Europe is the main cause for the lull in the Allied air offensive against Germany, which has been held up since May 29, just as the onslaught seemed to be getting into stride,” says the aviation writer of the “Evening Standard.” “People of Britain are wondering why. There are reports ’ that the weather is worrying the Germans too. They did not like the raids and now they, do not like the lull. They think it points to something bigger. Maybe it does. The Royal Air Force is obviously building up to participate in the amphibious operations promised by Mr. Churchill. Losses have little or nothing to do with the pause, although 252 night bombers were lost during the record ‘attacks last month. The proportion of losses has not increased since 1942, in spite of stronger German defences.”

An Air Ministry communique states that in offensive operations over Northern France and Belgium on Thursday evening, Spitfires of the Fighter Command destroyed four enemy aircraft. Three armed trawlers off the Dutch coast were attacked and damaged. Three Allied fighters are missing.

GERMAN MORALE

LONDON, June 11. Dr. Goebbels, in an article in “Das Reich,” attacked semi-intellectuals in Germany. Dr. Goebbels said: “About these semi-intellectuals, one must say a few words, from Lime to time, even at the risk that our enemies will believe that considerable opposition exists to the Reich war. Everybody knows that such opposition does not exist. From the first days of Nazism, our enemies have stuck to 10,000 who opposed us, and not to the millions who were the foundation of the new Reich. They think that they can break our morale by air terror, and they arc being encouraged in that belief by that small circle of dissatisfied ones. Only from this point of view does that circle represent a danger, which we must oppose. Beyond that, it is completely without importance.”