SINCE WAR BEGAN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25563, 16 June 1944, Page 4

SINCE WAR BEGAN

400,000 TONS OF BOMBS OVER HALF ON GERMANY RUGBY, June 14. Bomber Command since the outbreak of the war has dropped 400,000 tons of high explosives and incendiaries, of which total 275,000 tons were dropped on Germany. The first 100,000 tons were, dropped between 1940 and the spring of 1943, and the second 160,000 in barely seven months. Early in March last the command switched to the pre-invasion bombing of occupied Western Europe, often delivering over 10,000 tons in precision attacks in one week on objectives in France and Belgium. The night before the invasion Bomber Command dropped wellr over 5000 tons on the coastal batteries. In the last heavy attack, on June 12, nearly 4000 tons were dropped on targets in Germany and France. Since D-Day., the Allied air forces have flown 56,000 sorties and dropped 42,000 tons of bombs. The enemy lost 306 planes in the air, while the Allied losses were 554 —139 heavies and 415 others—slightly less than 1 per cent, of the sorties flown.