AIR OFFENSIVE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 April 1943, Page 4

AIR OFFENSIVE

AGAINST AXIS IN WESTERN EUROPE LUFTWAFFE COMPLETELY OUTCLASSED. HEAVY DAMAGE TO GERMAN WAR INDUSTRY. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11.35 a.m.) RUGBY, March 31. Between 1,000 and 2,000 aircraft took part in four successive nights’ bombing of enemy-occupied territory which began on March 26 and ended yesterday morning. Very heavy blows were struck at Duisberg, Berlin, St Nazaire and, on the fourth night, at Berlin again, and also at targets in the Ruhr. Experts consider the loss of 48 machines in four nights a small cost in relation to the havoc caused to enemy war industries and to the number of bombers engaged. A Ministry of Economic Warfare official said in London today that the air bombing of Germany, combined with the British blockade, was having an effect in weakening Germany’s production. “During the last three months,” said the spokesman, “the industrial damage done by our Air Force has been far greater to the enemy than the damage inflicted on us in any given period of three months in raids on this country. Not at any time during the raids on Britain was damage done to compare with the destruction at Krupps, or the vast fires and destruction to factories in Berlin and the Ruhr.”