DIVERSE AIRCRAFT USED

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 7 August 1941, Page 5

DIVERSE AIRCRAFT USED

IS AST AFRICAN AIR CAMPAIGN ENEMY FAR SUPERIOR IN NUMBERS Rugby, Aug. 5. j Details of the Allied Air Forces’ activities in the Abyssinian campaign | show that the Free French Force coj operated with the squadrons of the I South African and Rhodesian air forces |as well as the R.A-F. in widespread ; operations which culminated successi fully in freeing the territory from the Italian yoke. Among the diverse aircraft used—they ranged from Hartbeeste to Hurricanes—were several I German-built machines—Juß6’s—flown | by the South African Air Force. ' In all. the Allied strength varied be- | tween IGO and 190 aircraft, while the ! enemy strength, it is believed, never exceeded 220 at one time, of which 140 ' were bombers and 70 fighters. It is j calculated that up to 17th July last some 306 enemy aircraft were destroy- | ed at the cost of 144 planes to the Allies, j Six squadrons of Allied bombers to 'that date had raided 121 different tarI get areas in more than 650 separate at- | camouflage by the Italians was a noticeable feature of the campaign. but the Allied reconnaissance aircraft seem readily to have spotted the attempted deceptions, which included the creation of artificial dust-storms by ! running the airscrews of unserviceable ; aircraft placed on the edges of acroi dromes. CRESCENDO OF ATTACKS The Allied operations were carried I out from Aden, the Sudan, and Kenya, ; and they gradually gained in intensity ! till in August of last year a threeI pronged attack by the R.A.F.. the Rhodesian Air Force and S.A.A.F. covered points from Massawa to Kisimayu and from Mogadishu to Gondar. In September, in the Gondar region, a successful raid destroyed a large ammuni--1 tion dump among other successes. With the invasion of Abyssinia the

air forces operated in close co-operation \s ith the troops, and from last February onward they were more directly con cerned with support of the ground . forces. In March and April Swordfish , aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm joined the R.A.F. in an attack on five destroyers in the Red Sea, and when the general i offensive accelerated toward the end of I April the bombing sorties increased, as ; many as 225 being made against enemy i troop concentrations in a single week. After the Duke of Aota’s surrender i in May the campaign gradually dimin-! ished, and by 17th June the operations (mainly consisted in harassing remnants, of the Italian forces in central Aybs-1 I sinia.—B.O.W.