ALLIED AIR POWER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25799, 21 March 1945, Page 5

ALLIED AIR POWER

SUPREMACY OVER BURMA HUNDREDS OF SORTIES DAILY (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON. Mar. 20. Because of the effectiveness of Allied air-power in Burma, the Japanese now move troops and supplies by road, rail, and coastal shipping routes almost entirely at night, stated an Air Ministry spokesman. The Allies, on the other hand, because they have won air supremacy, can supply their big armies eniirely by air, enabling the land forces to strike out in any direction in the knowledge that their supplies will reach them. Allied air superiority today extends not only over the whole of Burma, but over Thailand. The Japanese Air Force rarely attacks in the daytime, while the Allied air forces are flying an average of 600 or 700 sorties a day. Long-range bombers, naval planes, and land-based fighter-bombers are subjecting Japanese communications from despatch to delivery to constant attack. The Japanese are compelled to Use very elaborate forms of camouflage to protect railway and road traffic. They put up duplicate bridges, make serviceable bridges appear unserviceable by removing the planking in the daytime and replacing it at night, and they build bridges with moveable pontoons in the middle, which they remove in the daytime and put back alter dark. Allied transport planes in 1944 in Burma flew over 300,000 hours on 90,000 flights. They carried over 250,000 tons of supplies to the combat zone, and now fly 1200 sorties a day. A total of 2000 tons is being carried every day to the four Burma fronts—Lashio, Mitta, Mandalay, and Arakan.