AIR ENTERPRISE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 November 1942, Page 4

AIR ENTERPRISE

AGAINST RETREATING NAZIS IN LIBYA ONSET OF BRITISH FIGHTERS USE OF TRANSPORT PLANES. IN OCCUPATION OF ADVANCED LANDING GROUNDS. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day. 12.25 p.m.) RUGBY, November 23, The weather continues to be very bad over the zone of operations in Libya, and pilots even report seeing snow over the retreating Germans, according to messages from the Middle East. Nevertheless, it was revealed at R.A.F. Headquarters today that for almost a week small fighter forces, complete with ground staff, have carried out a series of brilliant operations far behind the enemy lines. It must have been a disconcerting puzzle fcr the enemy when they found their supply lines being ground-strafed by singleengined machines on the road far south of Benghazi, at a stage when they would not havb expected ahy single-engined aircraft to be within range. A fleet of transport planes and ground convoys was used to make this sudden thrust at the enemy rear. The whole operation, which lasted for several days, was guarded bn the ground by an experienced R.A.F. armoured car company... After establishing an. emergency landing ground, these fighters appeared over roads far to the enemy’s rear, strafing columns of unsuspecting vehicles which imagined they were retreating in perfect safety. More than a hundred vehicles were destroyed and probably twice that number damaged. It is now disclosed that when the general enemy retreat began, an Italian Fascist Youth column, which had been occupying the Siwa Oasis, also retreated, but before long was overtaken by R.A.F. fighter squadrons, which attacked deep in the desert and so severely mauled the column that it must have been almost wiped out.