BUSY TRAFFIC

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 December 1942, Page 3

BUSY TRAFFIC

OF BRITISH AIRCRAFT MANY RAIDS ON OCCUPIED EUROPE. TRAIL OF FIRE & WRECKAGE , LEFT. LONDON, December 23. British aircraft were crossing and recrossing the southeast coast during the afternoon. One correspondent says that at one time large forces going out passed close by equally large forces coming home. Fighters were out last night in raids on railway targets in France and the Low Countries. They comprised one of the largest forces sent out by the R.A.F. Fighter Command for some time, and left a trail of wreckage behind them. The enemy’s communication lines were attacked from Holland to northwestern France. Airfields as well as railway marshalling yards, locomotive sheds and freight trains were attacked. Coastal Command aircraft were oil. searching for enemy targets. They sighted a convoy of German supply ships off the Dutch coast and hit two ships. One is believed to have been sunk. One Coastal Command aircraft is missing. ALbOUT OFFENSIVE AMERICAN PREPARATIONS WELL ADVANCED. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, December 22. The American air forces in Britain will soon be ready to undertake an allout air offensive, stated Major-General Henry F. Miller, who has been appointed commanding general of the United States Army Eighth Air Force Service Command. He said that his command dealt with supplies of equipment and maintaining repairs and salvage, adding: “Our real mission is to get ready for an all-out offensive against the Axis, and I can assure you we shall be ready to accomplish this mission within a very brief period. Within the past six months every element to this command has been workin gat top speed to complete those ‘behind-the-line services, with a view to a sustained air offensive.” Asked if any of General Arnolds “battle wagons” had reached Britain, Major-General Miller said: “They will be over. Our newer type combat aircraft will come here as soon as they can be turned out.”