JANUARY AIR LOSSES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23880, 3 February 1941, Page 7

JANUARY AIR LOSSES

AXIS SUFFERS HEAVILY MEDITERRANEAN FRONTS 18 QUIET NIGHTS IN LONDON (Received February 2. 0.30 p.m.) British Wireless LONDON, Feb. 1 Figures compiled front official communiques show aircraft losses in various theatres of war during January. Over Britain and British coast n! waters the Germans lost 23 aircraft and the British one. Over cnemv and enemv-occupied territory the Germans lost seven aircraft and the British IS. At sea the Germans had no losses and the British lost one machine. On the Mediterranean fronts, including Africa. -Albania, and Malta, the enemy lost 87 aircraft in the air and 97 on the ground. The British lost 14. I here were 41 Jjondon alerts in January lasting 88 hours. Alerts since the outbreak of war total 1268 hours. There were 18 nights without alerts last month. Except on the Albanian front air operations in the European theatre of war were on a small scale during the week ended January 31. Because of extremely adverse weather conditions on four nights out of the seven no bombing operations were carried out over Germany or occupied territory by the Royal Air Force. On the other nights industrial targets were bombed and both \\ ilhelmshaven and Lorieni were visited. No losses were sustained by aircraft engaged in the operations. GERMAN SACRIFICES PILOT'S TRIBUTE TO BRITISH ZURICH, Jan. 31 A German pilot in a letter to a Stuttgart newspaper wrote: "We who daily combat England know the difficulty of our task. Our sacrifices are high, not only in losses, but in nerve strain. We must often, in obeying orders, overcome our inner feelings that the enemy has excellent, well-trained men. "We demand that the population, reading communiques, will not underestimate the difficulties of our task, as practically each victory means sacrifices of men and material. Our enemy also fights bravely." NAZIS IN URUGUAY SUPREME COURT'S WARNING (Received February 2, 5.35 p.m.) MONTEVIDEO, Feb. 1 The Supreme Court, in a decision denying bail to eight Nazis under trial for anti-Uruguayan activities, said it was dealing with people who were attacking the very essence of the existence of an independent nation. It cited the Nazi organisation dividing Uruguay into military centres, shock troops tramping the roads and practising on rifle ranges, and glider organisations training at military aerodromes. The strategy extraordinarily resembled that applied by the Germans in recent conquests. RIVER PLATE BLOC DRAFT SCHEME APPROVED (Received February 2, 5.35 p.m.) MONTEVIDEO, Feb. l The River Plate Conference approved a draft convention on the lines suggested bv Argentina, thus establishing a new principle in inter-American economic relations. The formation of a five-Power River Plate economic bloc, the effect of which would nullify most-favoured-nation treaties with the United States and Britain, was proposed b.v the Argentine delegates. The proposal would weld Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Bolivia and Paraguay into an economic bloc for the exchangee of trade concessions that would be granted to no other nations. AMERICAN SHIPPING SERVICE IN PACIFIC (Received February 2, 8.30 p.m.) WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 Senator Gerald P. Nye said to-day that he understood that when the "Aid-to-Britain" Bill was passed one of the first things done by the United States would be to take over the British shipping routes in the Pacific in order to free British ships for the Atlantic service. He said he did not believe this would be an unneutral act.