SHATTERING BLOW

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 April 1943, Page 3

SHATTERING BLOW

STRUCK BY ALLIED AIR FORCES IN MEDITERRANEAN Seventy-Four Enemy Aircraft Shot Down in Single Battle MANY OTHERS DAMAGED ON GROUND DEVASTATING RAIDS ON AXIS AIRFIELDS LONDON, April 19. WHAT IS DESCRIBED AS PROBABLY THE-BIGGEST SINGLE AIR BATTLE IN HISTORY WAS FOUGHT OUT YESTERDAY OFF THE COAST OF TUNISIA. IT RESULTED AT LEAST IN AN EIGHT TO ONE VICTORY FOR THE ALLIES, 58 ENEMY TRANSPORT PLANES AND 16 FIGHTERS BEING SHOT DOWN AT A COST OF NINE ALLIED FIGHTERS, WITH ONE OF THE PILOTS SAFE. Altogether, yesterday was the biggest day in the air so far in the Mediterranean war one. Eighty-five enemy aircraft were shot out of the sky, and many more were smashed up on the ground during widespread attacks on enemy airfields in Tunisia, Sicily, and Sardinia. At one airfield between 40 and 50 aircraft were caught parked on the ground and a petrol dump received a direct hit. AIR TRANSPORT CONVOY SMASHED A correspondent states that the attack on the enemy transport planes occurred in the late afternoon. A big force of Warhawks and Spitfires was out on patrol when it sighted a convoy of 152 transport planes, escorted by fighters. The bigconvoy was bn its way across the Mediterranean, having just left the Tunisian coast, when the Allied planes sighted it. The Warhawks dived into the convoy and attacked the transport planes, which were flying low, while the Spitfires tackled the escorting Messerschmitts above. Thp whole convoy was s Ji Rittere d Most of the transport planes, when hit, burst into flames. Many tried to turn back to land in Tunisia. Some of them, in a desperate attempt to escape, deliberately crash-dived on Tunisian beaches. The Allied fighters only gave up the chase when they had exhausted their ammunition and had only enough petrol left to get back. FIFTY-EIGHT TRANSPORT PLANES AND 16 FIGHTERS WERE SHOT DOWN FOR CERTAIN, WITH 30 MORE HIT AND AT LEAST DAMAGED. THE ALLIED LOSSES WERE NINE AIRCRAFT, WITH i ONE OF THE PILOTS SAFE. THE TOTAL NUMBER OF TRANSPORT PLANES DESTROYED IS LIKELY TO BE GREATER THAN INDICATED AS OTHER ALLIED PLANES ROARED OVER THE TUNISIAN BEACHES DURING THE NIGHT AND HUNTED BY - MOONLIGHT FOR PLANES WHICH HAD CRASH-LANDED THERE. Palermo, in Sicily, was raided by Flying Fortresses yesterday for the third day running. The railway yards were chock full of traffic and made really first-class targets. Ten more enemy transport planes were shot down in the Sicilian Narrows today. This figure only goes up to 10 o’clock this morning. On land in Tunisia things are still relatively quiet. Patrols in some sectors are very lively. French troops have gained more ground.