GREAT AIR BATTLES OVER DIEPPE

Southland Times, Issue 24828, 21 August 1942, Page 5

GREAT AIR BATTLES OVER DIEPPE

R.A.F. KEEPS “UMBRELLA” OVER CHANNEL

(United Press Association —Telegraph Copyright) (Rec. 1.25 a.m.) LONDON, August 20. Ninety-one German planes were destroyed and 100 were probably destroyed or damaged in gigantic air battles which raged over the French port of Dieppe during the Allied commando raid. Air activity on such a scale had not been seen near the Channel since the Battle of Britain in 1940. The Allies lost 98 planes, but 30 fighter pilots were saved. The Royal Air Force kept a protective “umbrella” over the Channel during the whole time the commandos were returning to England in their powerdriven barges. The landing has heartened the British people, who are inclined to regard it as a rehearsal for the forthcoming second front operations. The air fighting, of an intensity unequalled since the Battle of Britain, is estimated to have resulted in the destruction of one-third of the Luftwaffe’s fighting strength in the West. Although the proportion of the Luftwaffe’s losses was smaller than in the Battle of Britain, it is emphasized that the Royal Air Force’s attention was largely devoted to the protection of the landing forces, which was carried out on a scale unparalleled in the history of the British fighting services. Many of our losses were incurred in low attacks on enemy ground defences. A Vichy message states that the Dieppe zone is within the fortified area recently inspected by Grand-Admiral Erich Raeder, Commander-in-Chief of the German Navy, and other high officers. It was occupied by two S.S. divisions from Russia. Pictures of the zone’s fortifications show masses of barbed wire, machine-guns, artillery emplacements and block-houses. It is doubted whether there were many Frenchmen in the zone because all, except essential workers, have been compelled to move six miles from the coast.