ALL GERMANY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 July 1943, Page 4

ALL GERMANY

MENACED BY BOMBERS VALUE OF BASES IN ITALY. FOR LIGHT AND HEAVY AIRCRAFT (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 10.40 a.m.) LONDON, July 27. “if Italy surrenders, Germany will probably scon feel the double weight of Allied day and night bombing,” says the “Daily Express” aviation correspondent. “The capture of bases in Northern Italy would provide bases for the

massive British and American air forces in the Mediterranean Command to raid Germany from the south.

“Targets in Southern Germany could be brought within 150 to 200 miles of Allied-held airfields, the correspondent adds. This would mean that our lightest bombers could maintain the attack in support of heavier machines, just as Belgium, Holland and Northern France are being raided now. With the opening of such a two-way onslaught on Germany, not a single German town would be free from a gigantic hammering. From airfields in Southern Italy, our planes would have to fly only 500 miles to reach the Rumanian oilfields. From Northern Italy aerodromes the great Skoda munition works at Pilsen would be only 200 miles distant. Munich, the home of the Nazi Party, would be the nearest big target of all —only 150 miles. To protect the South German frontiers facing Italy, the Germans would need as many interceptor planes and night fighters as they now have in the Ruhr and in German-occupied countries in Western Europe.