Great Air Blitz On Germany Planned

Manawatu Times, Volume 67, Issue 94, 22 April 1942, Page 5

Great Air Blitz On Germany Planned

Britain and U.S. to Combine

LUBECK MAJOR DISASTER FOR NAZIS LONDON, April 20. Following the statement by General George Marshall, Chief-of-Staff of the United States Army, that American air units will be stationed throughout tho United Kingdom, the political correspondent ox the Daily Express says that a combined British and American air blitz against Germany and the occupied territory is believed to be ono of the most important results of the talks in London between British Ministers and Service chiefs and General Marshall, Plans have been made, it is believed, to build up in Britain a giant United States air force with its own organisation and ground staff. Germany is being forced to withhold powerful air forces from other war theatres to meet the new R.A.F. offensive in Europe, says the Daily Mail’s aeronautical correspondent. The Russian’s recent marked air successes were due in no small part to the British pressure in the west. Great German air forces based in the Mediterranean for the spring drive to the Suez are still held immobile.

The correspondent adds that a high official described the R.A.F. raid on the German Baltic port of Lubeck on March 23 as the greatest single reverse the Germans had suffered in the Russian war for weeks. Everything suggests that an enormous amount of war material awaiting shipment across tho Baltic to the German armies in Russia was destroyed in the inferno that swept Lubeck. The British bombing was creating a devastating impression throughout Western Germany, said M. Skeferis, former Greek Minister to Budapest, on arrival at Istanbul en route to Cairo. He added that thousands of the more prosperous Germans were moving from vulnerable points to Budapest and Vienna, where the hotels were over* flowing. Many factories were being moved, particularly to Prague and Vienna.