BRITAIN TAKING INITIATIVE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 24000, 25 June 1941, Page 7

BRITAIN TAKING INITIATIVE

GREAT SWEEP BY DAYLIGHT

SIGNIFICANT OF GROWING MASTERY

(Received June 24, 0.30 p.m.) LONDON, June 24 The Royal Air Force yesterday carried out a tremendous daylight offensive between Dunkirk and Brest, far beyond the proportions of its usual sweeps. It penetrated 50 miles inland and shot down 20 German aeroplanes. Two British bombers and three fighters are missing, but the pilot of one is safe. Two sweeps were made, one in the afternoon and the other in the evening. Seven enemy aircraft were destroyed in the first attack and 1 3 in the second. The comparatively poor total of seven destroyed in the afternoon was owing to the fact that the Germans, growing more cautious, sent up fewer fighters in opposition. The aeronautical correspondent of the Daily Mail says the extent of the operations indicates that a stage has been reached when the Royal Air Force attacks, for the first timp, place the German air force in danger of being more heavily attacked than it can itself attack. For many weeks, says the aeronautical correspondent of the Times, the promised full-scale day and night offensive by the Royal Air Force against occupied France arid Germany has been rising in crescendo. The first daylight operations were tentative, testing the opposition by quick swoops over the coast. The scale gradually has been built up, and now every day strong bomber formations, escorted by hundreds of fighters, penetrate farther and farther inland. No enemy aerodrome or military target can now feel safe from daylight attack. Coincident with the quickening day offensive, adds the Times, the night battering of the enemy's industrial centres is incessant, and ever heavier, while the Luftwaffe's attacks against Britain have dwindled. Also Russian bombers will now be able to hit the eastern industrial centres of the Reich. It is daylight offensives which will win the war, the Times concludes. The extension of daylight operations is 4 most encouraging sign that the Royal Air Force is on the road to final mastery of the Luftwaffe.