GREAT AIR RAID

Waikato Times, Volume 194, Issue 22245, 14 January 1944, Page 3

GREAT AIR RAID

BLOW TO GERMANY THRILLING COMBATS FACTORIES DESTROYED

(United Press Assn.—filer. Tel. Copyright) ! LONDON, Jan. 13 , Progress figures show that in the great air battle over Europe on Tues- j day United States aircraft shot down ! 152 German machines. American ! losses were 60 aircraft. 1 Bombers shot down 125 and fighters 27. The figures, which are not yet complete, do not include a large number shot down by bombers which failed to return. The British United Press correspondent at a United States bomber ’ i base says that yesterday’s great air battle over Germany seemed like a | great naval engagement to the men ! engaged. The German fighters were j flying in line abreast against the \ bomber formations and fired broadsides of rocket shells. The Germans even used “destroyer” smokescreens. I Some of the crews admitted that they never expected to return home when • the German attacks fully developed. ■ I The huge air battle over Germany ’ | yesterday inflicted one of the hardest ' blows yet struck against the German > air force at a cost of approximately 5 per cent of the raiding American . planes, said Lieutenant-General H. ! H. Arnold, chief of the United States ■ Army Air Corps, in a statement at New York. General Arnold said three important fighter plane factories ; were smashed and their production . was wiped out altogether for months. , European headquarters of the > United States Army Air Force states . that American fighters escorting the L bombers flew further into Germany [ yesterday than on any previous mis- . sion, shepherding the bombers over , targets in north-west Germany. They knocked out 28 enemy planes. J Violent Combats ! One group of long-distance fighters , destroyed 14 enemy planes and dam- [ I aged over 20 without loss to itself. . I This group has now raised’ its score : to 32 planes destroyed without loss 1 in three missions. The group flew over 400 miles to the target and then ' engaged rocket-firing enemy planes in violent combat while the bombers . were dropping high explosive bombs, j The heaviest cost of an American | daylight attack was the loss of 60 j bombers in the raid against the Schl V/einfurt ball-bearings works 'on L I October 14. Other heavy bomber ’ | losses were 59 against Schweinfurt ' and Regensburg on August 17, and 45 | against Stuttgart on September 6. The highest total of German fighters shot down in any American raid was 307 in the Schweinfurt and i Regensburg attack on August 17. > A Luftwaffe pilot, Lieutenant i Westmann, broadcasting over the 1 Berlin radio, said: “The Allied air offensive is a veritable steam-roller, rolling over us day and night. Our ■ pilots are undergoing the same experience as. the German infantry in 1 1916 when the first British tanks ap- • peared. German air defence in the ’ past 12 months has undergone the ! hardest test. We had to develop a t new system of elastic defence. Our pilots have to wait to the very last l minute for the leader to decide 1 whether it pays better to go against t the enemy fighters or against the • bombers.” Americans Replace Losses t The Americans have already replaced the planes and air crews lost in the great air battle over Germany on Tuesday, says the Evening Standard’s correspondent with the United States Forces. Great replacement depots arrange replacements within 24 hours. The United States Army official j newspaper, Stars and Stripes, anr nounced that the delay in assessing . J the results was due to fog, which un- ; expectedly settled over the airfields | before the raiders returned home, j Many bombers had to be diverted to ; distant airfields, and it is believed that seme at present listed as miss- ' ing may have landed safely in more . isolated parts of Britain. ’ ; 1 ■ ’ . ’ " ■ [ ■ • 5 ! | , ’ . ; . ;