DRIVEN FROM SKY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 May 1943, Page 4

DRIVEN FROM SKY

LUFTWAFFE IN AFRICA AIR CHIEF MARSHAL TEDDER'S SURVEY. “HUNS REALLY HARD-PINCHED” (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, May 15. The Chief of the North African Air Forces, Air Chief Marshal Tedder, told correspondents that the Allies in • the battle of Tunisia captured 520 aircraft, most of them in good condition, including many of the latest types. The Allies, he said, had air supremacy throughout. During the battle the enemy pilots just would not fight. In the later phases of the battle the Allies had fighter patrols over the enemy airfields the whole time. The enemy tried to send machines from Sicily, but they never reached Africa. The Allies in the past had been inclined to flatter the Luftwaffe, but the German was no good in the air. He did not know how to use an air force properly. Individually, the Germans might be good, but they did not understand how to use air power as a weapon of war. “There are signs that the Huns are really hard-pinched and that the Luftwaffe will be the first German arm to crack up completely,” said Air Chief Marshal Tedder. He gave a warning against the employment of a dispersed Allied air force, and claimed that concentration was the key to air power. “The Luftwaffe has been definitely driven from the sky, and Allied shipping wilLnow be able to use the Mediterranean in safety,” he added.