AIR FORCE'S PART

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20828, 6 July 1942, Page 3

AIR FORCE'S PART

DEFENCE OF EGYPT DIVE-BOMBERS’ FATE 13 OUT OF 15 DOWNED (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (British Official Wireless.) (9. a.m.) RUGBY. July 5. Almost every report of the fighting in Egypt makes a special point of the part played by the Royal Air Force and South African Air Force. It is clear that the work of the air forces in this battle is beyond human praise. A 8.8. C. observer with the Eighth Army has given the following account of how 13 out of 15 S.tukas were shot down in a single engagement. “The enemy has begun his campaign to step up the activity of the Axis air force,” he says. “In an effort to offset the damage he has been suffering at our hands, he sent out a force of 15 Stukas, strongly escorted by fighters. Their mission was .to dive-bomb our forward troops at Alamein. / “The S.tukas had reached the target and were peeling off for their dive when the South Africans smashed down on them. They were flying Hurricanes and, following their leader, Major le Mesurier, of Capetown, they came in at full speed to break up the enemy formation. There was a .fierce air battle immediately (over: the heads of our troops who,, as always on these, stirring occasions, were watching from the ground, regardless of their own danger. All Over in Five Seconds “It was all over in five seconds Thirteen Stukas crashed .to, the ground in flames, falling among our forward positions, where the troops were cheering and shouting. The fourteenth machine staggered out of the battle badly damaged, trying .to get home. The fifteenth was the only one to escape. * “While this was happening another Hurricane squadron which was acting as top cover for the machines below, went for .the Messerschmitts and sent one crashing down. These Hurricanes prevented .the enemy escort from intervening so effectively that we did not suffer a single casualty to men or machines. All returned unharmed. “Elsewhere, more dive-bombers were damaged and probably written off. Messerschmitts suffered the same fate and so did Italian Macchis. Fighter pilots, wth their machines loaded with bombs, fought and won encounters with the bombs still on their machines and then went on with the bombing joo. “The enemy did his best to interfere in the air. Every one of our bombing forces was attacked, but so good was the fighter cover that not one day bomber was lost. Nor did all this activity reduce the protection given by the air force to the men on the ground. During the day, hundreds of .tons of bombs were dropped among enemy forward troop concentrations, and when the first day bombing sorties went out early in the morning they flew over thin grey pillars of smoke still rising from the wrecks of Axis transport tanks which had been hammered by heavy machines during the hours of darkness.” The British Army in the Western Desert is now seeing for itself the successful results of the Allied air attacks, says the Air Ministry news service. Much of the ground occupied by the enemy is now a mass of bomb craters. In many of them lie fighting vehicles or enemy supply transport knocked out or burned to a shell. Tremendous Bombing Day bombers and fighter-bombers carried out a great deal of this bombing yesterday in full view of the ground troops. In one case, for instance, the targets among the enemy positions lay only 400 yards in front of our men Forced by considerable “flak” to bomb from a moderate height, the pilots and bomb-aimers had to use the greatest care and skill in order not to hit their own side. It was noted yesterday that the enemy were using Italian aircraft on an increasing scale. The tremendous scale of the bombing and fighting by the Allied air forces is further shown by the Royal Air Force Middle East news service, I which says that, in addition to bombing enemy positions, fighter squadrons concentrated yesterday on ground strafing of supply columns as well as to the rear of the battle zone between Sidi Barrani .and Gambut. Approximately 50 lorries were destroyed or damaged. Most of them were troop carriers. Towards evening a large concentration of enemy vehicles to the west of the battle area was the target for a strong night attack by, medium bombers. Heavy bombers attacked Benghazi. The enemy put up a raid of comparatively small scale over the Suez Canal and Alexandria last night. They paid for it heavily, for night fighters shot down five enemy bombers, three of them over the canal zone and two in the Alexandria area: In the Mediterranean, British bombers and torpedo-carrying aircraft attacked an enemy supply convoy off Sapienza Island. One ship was hit by a torpedo and left enveloped in a red glow and smoke. Air Chief Marshal Tedder, replying and thanking Mr. Winston Churchill for his message to the Royal Air Force In the Middle East, says: “We are all resolved to strive, our utmost and more to assist the army to clear Africa of the enemy.”