SUPPLY BY AIR

Grey River Argus, 22 September 1944, Page 8

SUPPLY BY AIR

For Allied Armies o ■ i A REMARKABLE TRAFFIC ' BRUSSELS, Sept. 12. Thousands of tons of supplies for I the Army were being landed behind i the front to-day by fleets of Dakota I transport aircraft, wlrch are c.arry- ■ ing out one of the biggest opera- ' tions of its kind. For the first time ; in its history the Army is be ng supj plied bv air, and without these sup- | plies it '.is doubtful whether 'their i < rent advance could have been ma'n- ' iained. Daily from many airfields in Britain, great formations of Dakotas, numbering as many as 40 and 50. are flying direct to advanced .airfields carrying urgent supplies and petrol, food, ammunition and equipment.’ This morning I visited an airfield which in five days received 0000 tons of supplies from one thou- • and a’reraft. It was an amazing ene with the sky full of aircraft cycling while others were landing at* the rate of one every twenty seconds. Immediately they land, lorries manned by 'R’.A.S.C. trundle clones de and each aircraft is relieved of its load in an average of 20 minutes. This imposed great strain on ground crews, pioneers who have been working- at least 12 hours daily during the .advance with no time off. A wing commander in charge of the airfield said: “They are the finest bunch of boys I ever had to work with There is never a grouse or crumble despite hard slogging work —and all supplies have to be manhandled from aircraft to lorry, then removed from lorry at the depot.” I have been on many airfields throughout the war but have never seen a scene equalling that one this mornng. Once we watched four aircraft touch down with intervals between hem of only four seconds. Then •here was a lull of 12 seconds until the next landed. There were three meat rows of Dakotas standing nose to tail, some being unloaded into i; rr'es, and others waiting to return to England. They take off at intervals of only ten seconds, and fly back in formation. They are, of course, all American aircraft. They are operated by both the British and American air force men. There are no mixed loads, end each aircraft is “offloaded” by five men. General Montgomery who visited 'this- airfield was greatly impressed. Hard worked ■ round crews were particularly glad to see him, as he left them- 10,000 cigarettes. There is no doubt that when the iiistory of this campaign is written, this system of air supply will rank as one of the more important features. It’s a success. A particularly •interesting point is that the Dakotas are operatmg without the slightest opposition from the Luftwaffe, which, f it had any virility, could find plenty of targets, both in the air and on the ground. Transporters on th's airfield alone yesterday handled eight and a half ions of maps, four and a half tons of blood plasma, and one and a quarter tons of mail -for the troops.. One ton of leaflets were received and ' sent on immediately. Other supplies were taken* to Army depots, where ' big stores are accumulating for disposal when necessary. Each aircraft ' carried a load of 45001b5, and had • been making two trips daily to advanced airfields, which are known as terminal staging posts. During the advance these posts of course are advanced as fresh airfields become available, and one post has travelled 300 miles in one week, using no fewer than seven different airfields. There is, of course, the closest cooperation between the R.A.F. and ' R.A.S.C., airfield commander .and colonel working togethei- as one. At ’ the airfield I visited it claimed that if a fresh airfield was reached at midnight it would be ready to receive transport aircraft by 8 a.m.