ENEMY AIRCRAFT
R.A.F. TALLY FOR YEAR (Recd. 9 p.m.) Rugby, Jan. 2. During 1942 Fighter Command ana anti-aircraft gunners destroyea 738 enemy aircraft, approximately equivalent to 62 squadrons ot the Luftwaffe. Of this total 443 were shot down by R.A.F. fighters over the enemy’s side of the Channel—399 by day fighters and 44 by Intruder pilots on nignt offensive patrols. Over this country and its seaboards 118 German aircraft were shot down by fighters and shore-based anti-air-craft guns during daylight. Night defences fighters, and gun posts accounted for another 177.
In all these operations Fighter Command lost 593 aircraft but the pilots of 49 were saved. Thus in 1942, as in the preceding years of the war, Fighter Command continued to maintain the balance of losses in its own favour, even though most of its actions since assuming the offensive in 1941 have been fought over the enemy's territory. In daylight since the war began Fighter Command pilots have now shot down some 4600 enemy aircraft and another 800 at night have been shared with antiaircraft gunners.—B.O.W.
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Bibliographic details
Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 2, 4 January 1943, Page 3
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177ENEMY AIRCRAFT Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 2, 4 January 1943, Page 3
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