GREAT AIR ARMADA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25456, 10 February 1944, Page 5

GREAT AIR ARMADA

DAYLIGHT OFFENSIVE FRANXFURT AGAIN BOMBED (.Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, Feb. 8. All types of battle planes were thrown into a daylight offensive today which began soon after daybreak and continued throughout the day without pause, stretching from the coast across the Channel and deep into (he Reich. It is officially announced that from all operations 12 heavy bombers, 1 medium bomber, 1 light bomber, 2 lighter-bombers and 9 fighters are missing. Twenty-one enemy fighters were destroyed. Nineteen of them were shot down during the raid on Frankfurt, and the other two by Typhoons over Britanny. The Allied air fleets struck, first, against Frankfurt, which Flying Fortresses escorted by long-range fighters saturated with bombs for the third time in 10 days; secondly, against Pas de Calais, which was blasted by American Liberators and Marauders, R.A.F., dominion and Allied Bostons, Mitchells, Mosquitoes, Typhoons and Hurricanes.

Great fighter formations screened the cross-Channel bomber forces, which carried out at least nine assaults on das de Calais alone throughout the day, including a single attack by 200 Marauders.

British and American planes filled the Channel sky all day, the shuttle service at one time being incessant for two hours. The pilots described the armadas as a massive pattern curtain across the sky. The Germans again conserved their fighters and put up no opposition over Pas de Calais, but • guns were massed in considerable strength along the coast.

Flying Fortresses going to Frankfurt encountered an unusual attack when 15 Focke-Wulfs, flying in close formation, waggled their wingtips, indicating friendly planes. The Fortress pilots for a moment relaxed, whereupon the Focke-Wulfs roared in four abreast and poured in bullets for a full minute. One pilot said that he feared that the sudden attack knocked out some of the Fortresses.

Last night Mosquitoes of Bomber Command attacked objectives in Western Germany, and intruder planes attacked airfields in Northern France, states the Air Ministry. None of our aircraft is missing.