TRANSPORT COMMAND

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 March 1943, Page 3

TRANSPORT COMMAND

NEW DIVISION OF R.A.F. ESTABLISHMENT ANNOUNCED BY AIR MINISTER. SURVEY OF PAST YEAR’S OPERATIONS.. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 9.40 a.m.) RUGBY, March 11. A Government decision to establish a R.A.F. Transport Command was announced by • the Air Minister (Sir Archibald Sinclair), in introducing the Air Estimates in the House of Commons. The new command will control the operations of R.A.F. transport squadrons at home and will be responsible for the organisation and control of strategic air routes, for all overseas ferrying and for the reinforcement and movement of squadrons to and between overseas theatres. After detailing the scope of the widespread R.A.F. operations during the past year, from North Russia to the east coast of the United States and from the South-West Pacific to Iraq, asf well as in the main theatres, Sir A. Sinclair went on to speak of German air dispositions and strategy in Europe. Throughout the past year, he said, there had been a formidable German bomber force in Western Europe, but the soundness of Britain’s air defence had been a deterrent. In the last three months, of 392 aircraft which had crossed our coast by day, 4 had been destroyed, in addition to a large number probably destroyed and damaged, while in the same period, of 240 enemy aircraft crossing the British coasts by night, 26 had been destroyed, in addition to those probably destroyed or damaged. The recent increase in German promiscuous daytime tip and run raids had been designed to stir up an agitation in Britain to compel the Government to divert forces from offensive action, but the enemy had under-estimated British civilian fortitude. Sir A. Sinclair said the smallness of the so-called reprisal' raids i against London was largely due to German preoccupation with the Russian and African campaigns, but also to the pulverising offensive of the Bomber Command, which was compelling the Germans to switch a proportion of their capacity from the production of bombers to that of defensive fighters. The Minister said that in the past two years the R.A.F. in all theatres had sunk or seriously damaged over one and a quarter million tons of enemy shipping. There was no doubt also that the new mines, of which nine times as many were laid in 1942 as in 1941, were doing a great deal more damage than we knew. TAKING WEIGHT OFF RUSSIA. The main objective of the offensive air operations from Britain during the past year, said Sir A. Sinclair, had been to take the weight off the Russians. Fighter sweeps and daylight raids had been an important part of this policy. We had lost 500 fighters, but in the same period the enemy lost 655. Of 2,500 escorted bombers, fewer than fifty were lost. The attacks had compelled the enemy to keep his finest fighters and pilots in Western Europe, although the German Army was clamouring for fighter support. The Minister told of a great advance in R.A.F. bombing method and of the improvement of bombs. With the delivery of ten thousand tons of bombs in February, including 3,000ton raids, the Bomber Command had dropped over half as much again as in any previous month. In the first ten days of this month 400 tons had been dropped. HAVOC IN GERMANY. An area of 160 acres had been destroyed at Essen and it was estimated that there was a total of 450 acres where at least 75 per cent of the buildings had been demolished. At Wilhelmshaven, 118 acres had been devastated, including the utter destruction of an arsenal. At Rostock 130 acres had been devastated, at Mainz 35 acres, at Lubeck 200 acres, at Karlsruhe 260 acres, at Dusseldorf 380 acres and at Cologne 600 acres. Sir A. Sinclair added that he was not yet able to assess the results of the great raid on Berlin, but it was reported that, the Air Ministry building had been hit. In all it was estimated that the Bomber Command had destroyed or seriously damaged about two thousand factories and industrial works in Germany and that over a million people had lost their homes, not counting large numbers evacuated. Direct damage to steel works in the Ruhr and Saar districts had caused the loss of H million tons of steel output and coal production had fallen by twenty per cent. “Let no one underestimate the strength of the enemy,” Sir A. Sinclair concluded, “or the power and variety of his resources. This is no time for relaxing in any direction, but for the concentration of our effort for victory. The fighting strength and exertions of the R.A.F. have increased, and in the coming year will mount.”