4000 PLANES OUT ON TUESDAY

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 192, 12 May 1944, Page 5

4000 PLANES OUT ON TUESDAY

Record Allied Offensive ('By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) LONDON, May 10.. For the first time since the big air offensive from Britain began, the official figure is available of the total number of planes engaged in a single day. The Air Ministry states that 4000 British and American bombers and fighters of all types operated from Britain yesterday, of which only 21 were lost. It is probable that the day as a whole was a record for the offensive against German-occupied territory. ( The Press Association’s aviation correspondent says it would take many thousands of words to describe _the devastation in detail. At least 25 target areas were plastered with thousands ot tons of bombs—military targets, railways, aerodromes, bridges, river locks, transhipment sheds, and coastal targets. Effect on Nazis. The “Daily Telegraphs” Stockholm correspondent says that the gradual destruction by the Allied air offensive of the Nazis’ administrative system is a more serious threat to Germany’s war effort than the effect of the bombing on the nerves of civilian population. During the first four mouths of this year 1941 British and 1117 American bombers operating from Britain were reported lost over Germany and northern Europe, said the Secretary of State for Air, replying to a question in the House of Commons. General Arnold, in a speech in New York, said that the United States Army Air Force in a recent month had dropped 57,000 tong of bombs on Nazi Europe, exceeding the tonnage fpr the whole of 1943. He added: “The Japanese may rest assured that it will be only a matter of time before tlie same treatment will be available for them at home.”