NO PAUSE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25429, 10 January 1944, Page 3

NO PAUSE

ALLIED AIR OFFENSIVE “GERMANY WILL CRACK” (Rec. 9 p.m.) LONDON, Jan. 8. The belief that the minute that Germany is knocked out of the air the Germans will crack was expressed by General H. Arnold, commander of the United States Air Force in Britain. “The Germans will then know that the war is lost," he said. “ Three-fourths of Berlin has been destroyed,” General Arnold said, “ and we are going ahead to complete the job. We are picking out war centres throughout Germany and wiping them out. This, of course, will take some time. We have knocked Japan’s first team out of the air, and are working rapidly on the second team. The Luftwaffe’s first team is now limited almost entirely to attempting to stave off the Bi'itish and American bombers, but instead of slowing down the British and American bombing we are stepping up Germany’s destruction.” Allied planes yesterday concluded the most intense week of air assaults against Europe of the war, carrying out a total of 8000 sorties. According to the Stockholm paper Aftonbladet, Stettin Harbour is so badly damaged that it has scarcely been used since the R.A.F. raid of January 5. The Swedish Foreign Office announced that the Swedish Consulate in Stettin was destroyed in the raid. Great forces of British and American planes, each many hundreds strong, ranged over Europe in fine weather yesterday, sweeping over big Luftwaffe bases and the industrial areas of Germany and France without sighting a single enemy fighter. Even U.S.A.A.F. planes thrusting over 400 miles into German industrial belts were not challenged. The only opposition came from the ground defences.

Typhoon fighter-bombers opened the assault with successful attacks against various targets, including the Maupertus airfield on Cherbourg Peninsula. Afterwards Typhoon fighters swept the peninsula. Not until Mosquito bombers, escorted by Spitfires and, also Typhoons and Hurricane fighter-bombers attacked targets in northern France late in the afternoon did the Luftwaffe make a fleeting appearance, in which three Focke-Wulf 190’s were destroyed and three were damaged. Wing Commander R. D. Yule (Invercargill), D.F.C. and bar, a veteran of the Battles of France and Britain, shot down one Focke-Wulk. The Mosquito attack brought the number of planes operating against northern France to-day to approximately 750. The Press Association’s aviation writer says that the entire absence of German fighters from the European skies is the clearest indication yet of the Anglo-American air forces’ complete mastery of the air, and the Luftwaffe’s urgent need to conserve planes. Although the Germans have stepped up their fighter strength in Western Europe by 1000 planes a year, it is evident that they are still not prepared to risk inevitable losses in air clashes This is the first time U.S.A.A.F. planes have penetrated so deeply into .Germany and not niet fighter opposition. The Germans have frequently neglected a target in occupied territory, but have never failed to make a desperate bid to save one of their own important war centres.