Vast Aviation Possibilities

Manawatu Times, Volume 68, Issue 215, 10 September 1943, Page 5

Vast Aviation Possibilities

Received Thursday, 7.45 p.m. LONDON, Sept. 9.

The Daily Mail’s aviation correspond ent says that from the moment Allied air forces take possession of Italian airfields, it will be possible for our bombers to reduce to ruins every city of the Greater Reich. Moreover, Spitfires will be able to roam over an appreciable area of Southern Germany. Never again will costly bomber expeditions like the heroic feat of Lancasters in daylight last year, be necessary to reach key targets like Augsburg. Moreover, fighter-bomber sneak raids against Germany will now be possible. Finally, German defences laboriously built up in the west will be outflanked.

The Daily Mail’s naval writer says the surrender of Italy materially strengthens our hands against Japan from the naval viewpoint. Not only will a large portion of our battlefleet be able to steam eastwards, but whatever remains of Italian merchant tonnage will be utilised. Capetown, Durban and other South African ports will now resume their roles as bases well inside the deep defences of the Indian Ocean and not as bastions that might have had to meet the shock of a Japanese attack. We can now use the direct approach to India and Australia through the Suez Canal with both coasts of the Red Sea in friendly hands.