WIDESPREAD RAIDS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 17 April 1944, Page 5

WIDESPREAD RAIDS

AIR INVASION CONTINUES

EUROPEAN AIRFIELDS HAMMERED U.S. FIGHTERS' DEEP PENETRATION London. April 18. The air invasion oi Europe was continued on Saturday with widespread attacks by strou ß forces of United States lighters on 10 airfields in Germany and occupied territory,states a communique iroin headquarters of the United States strategc air forces in Europe. The attacks ranged over a wide area m contral and northern Germany, with som: formations penetrating as far cast as airfields in the vicinity ol Berlin. In low-level strafing attacks our fighters destroyed and damaged a considerable number of grounded enemy aircraft. In addition some of our fighters attacked barges flak cars, factories and locomotives in Germany. Fighter pilots reported 17 locomotives damaged by strafing. Weather generally was unfavourable to and from targets and the Hying conditions were difficult. The attacking forces included Lightnings and Thunderbolts. A number of enemy aircraft were destroyed in aerial combat. Thirty of our fighters are miss-, ing. One Mustang group in a fighter attack on northern Germany made its longest flight yet, flying more than 1200 miles. Officially 30 planes have not returned from strong forces of United States Air Force fighters which attacked airfields in central and nortehern Germany yesterday. Pilots reported the destruction of at least 25 enemy planes on the ground in addition to those in the air. The Press Association's aeronautical correspondent says 500 to 750 fighters participated in the attacks, resulting in one of the biggest fighter sweeps so far carried out over Germany. Stockholm radio, quoting a Swedish High Command report, announced that about 50 foreign planes flew over southern Sweden after noon yesterday. One plane crashed in flames. The body of a member of the crew, believed to be American, who baled out. was found near the burning plane. Home Guards are searching for others. Turnu Severin, Rumania, bombed by Wellingtons last night is on the northern bank of the Danube on the chief railway from Budapest and Belgrade to Bucharest and Ploesti. Its extensive railway yards, says a Naples correspondent. are of vital importance to the Germans for supplies for the eastern front. Near the yards among buildings set on fire were massive silos and it is believed that small shipbuilding yards were also ignited. One explosion blew the astrodome off one Wellington. Not much opposition was met though there was some flak from barges on the Danube in addition to ground flak. An airfield a mile from the railway station was strafed and barges and rivercraft were also machine-gunned. AA wireless operator aboard one Wellington signalled "V for Victory” to Yugoslav villages “We immediately got a reply, followed by the word Tito,” said one flight lieutenant NAZIS LOSINCfWAR WEAPONS SUCCESSFUL ALLIED AIR OFFENSIVE London, April 14. "It will be nothing short of a miracle if the German armies on all fronts with their war factories and towns crumbling to dust behind them, prove anything like as well armed in 1944 as they were in 1943,” declared Air Chief Marshall Sir Arthur Harris, Com-mander-in-Chief of the Bomber Command, writing in the British journal "British Ally,” published in Moscow. He adds: "We may confidently expect the bomber to take his other weapons from the German soldier as effectively as it is already taking the aircraft which gave him air cover and close support.” Air Chief Marshal Harris said that the Luftwaffe’s battle order showed that half the German air force was facing westward to meet the R.A.F. and the U.S.A.A.F., each of which was now able to send out 1000 bombers either by day or night for a major attack. There were now four times as many German fighters on the Western Front as on the Eastern Front. One result of the Anglo-American bombing had been the successful wrecking of co-operation between the German army and the German air force, compelling each to fight by itself in a manner for which the army command had not made plans. It was Hitler himself who, two years ago, gave personal orders that henceforth the production of fighters should have priority over all other weapons. He had already then foreseen the danger of the air threat from the West. BOMBER OUTPUT DOWN The Germans since then had not only reduced their bomber production and converted many factories to making fighters, but had converted many bomber types into fighters. “However, there have been moments, especially during the Battle of Hamburg, when the German air defences seemed to be on the point of collapsing,” said Air Chief Marshal Harris. “There have been other moments, especially during February. 1944. when a sudden reduction of the Anglo-American bomber losses has proved how near was the Luftwaffe to exhaustion after fighting a series of day and night defensive battles. “This exhaustion comes more quicklp nowadays because the pressure of the bomber offensive caused the Germans last summer to give up their old plan of keeping their twin-engined fighters for use at night-time, and their singleengined for the day-time.”