PLANES SENT TO MIDDLE EAST
Machines Intended For Australia
(Special Australian Correspondent, N.Z.P.A.)
(Rec. 3.30 p.m.) SYDNEY, August 10. Australia agreed to the diversion to other more urgent theatres of new high performance fighter aircraft capable of dealing with the latest Japanese Zeros. These aircraft were actually on their way to Australia when the Prime Minister, Mr John. Curtin, believed they might make the difference between saving and losing Egypt and consented to their diversion to the Middle East. Obviously labouring under a heavy strain for some time past, the Prime Minister made a decision regarded as one of the most difficult of his career. Fighter aircraft to out-climb and out-
manoeuvre the Jananese Zeros are the primary need in the South-west Pacific war theatre and the loss of these planes seriously diminished Allied striking power here and hampered operations designed to counter the continued enemy infiltration. Though Mr Curtin has refused to comment on the diversion of _ these planes, it is know that Mr Curtin ana his colleagues unreservedly accepted the view that however necessary they were in this theatre they must go to a front on which the need was even more urgent.
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Southland Times, Issue 24819, 11 August 1942, Page 5
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195PLANES SENT TO MIDDLE EAST Southland Times, Issue 24819, 11 August 1942, Page 5
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