NAZI AIR FORCE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21605, 6 January 1945, Page 3

NAZI AIR FORCE

INCREASED STRENGTH REICH GUN DEFENCES ALLIED BOMBING BLOWS GO a.m.) LONDON, Jan. 5. As a result of its policy, conservation and continued production, the Luftwaffe at present is stronger than on D-day and shows signs oi improved leadership, said a senior air officer at. Supreme Allied Headquarters, at which Lieutenant-General C. Spaatz, commander of the United Slates Strategic Air Forces in Europe, and other American air force commanders were present, reports the Associated Press' correspondent.

The senior officer added that the Luftwaffe’s general effectiveness against the Allies is.not, however, greater.

General Spaatz, reviewing the past year’s air operations, said: “During most of 1944 the United States Air Forces’ strategic attacks, combined with the Royal Air Force Bomber Command’s, forced the Germans to tie down 1,700,000 men—-the equivalent of 140 ground divisions —in defence of important targets. Hundreds of thousands more Germans have been and still are engaged in repairing bomb damage, in building dispersed small workshops and developing factories underground. Our airmen to-day face a strong defensive Luftwaffe. We operate against ‘flak’ guns manned by 750,000 to 1,000,000 men. Heavy anti-aircraft guns have been concentrated in unparalleled numbers around critical oil targets in one area. The oil plants alone are defended by more heavy guns than the whole of greater Berlin.” General Spaatz also revealed at the conference that the United States Air Forces in the European and Mediterranean theatres during 1944 dropped

985,000 tons of bombs.’ Enemy plane' destroyed in the air and on the ground totalled 15.318, not including thousands more destroyed or damaged in attacks against air plants.

American combat losses from all causes were 7174 planes.