ONLY A BEGINNING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 November 1943, Page 4

ONLY A BEGINNING

DESTRUCTION OF AUSTRIAN PLANE FACTORY ORGANISATION OF ATTACKS FROM ITALY MUCH PREPARATORY WORK DONE (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 9.40 a.m.) LONDON, November 3. The Messerschmitt factory at Weiner Neustadt was destroyed in the latest United States air raid, declares an official statement issued in Algiers. Staff officers describe the raid as one of the most successful of the Mediterranean war. Direct hits were also scored on nearby factories, which are making armoured vehicles. The air crews described the raid as “mass destruction on a huge scale.” The Fifteenth United States Air Force units which made the attack comprised a large number of Flying Fortresses and Liberators. The destructive attack on the Austrian Messerschmitt factory near Vienna, a British Official Wireless message states, is regarded in London as only a foretaste of what Allied heavy bombers will be able to perform when Italian airfields are in full use. Much . preparatory work has to be done to set up first-class operational bases for bombing on a scale big enough to disrupt a country’s industries. This pro--1 cess took a great many months in England, where factories are close to aerodromes. A stage in establishing a com- ■ parable organisation in the Mediterranean is marked by the appointment of General Spaatz to the command of the new all-American Air Force, one part of which will consist of the veteran United States Twelfth Air Force, which entered North Africa a year ago and has been operating as part of the North West African Air Force sincme. Another part of the new command will be the Fifteenth United' States Air Force, just created. Italy has solid advantages - over England as a bombing base against Germany. Not only is the weather more favourable, especially in winter, but an approach to German targets can be made for long distances over water. GREAT AIR BATTLE AT LEAST 30 ENEMY PLANES DESTROYED AGAINST LOSS OF SIX BOMBERS (Received This Day, 12.30 p.m.) LONDON, November 3. The Exchange Telegraph Agency’s Algiers correspondent says one of the biggest air battles of the Italian campaign occurred during the raid against Wiener Neustadt. No final count of the enemy’s losses is yet available, but he sent up between 75 and 100 fighters, at least 30 of which were destroyed, for the loss of six of our bombers. BOMBING FORCE ONE OF MOST FORMIDABLE WORLD HAS SEEN. THREE-WAY ASSAULT ON NAZI WAR INDUSTRY. ' (Received This Day, 11.40 a.m.) LONDON, November 3. The Allies are planning for this winter a final three-way air assault io crack Germany’s war industry. This is the intention behind the creation of the new Fifteenth Army Air Force under General Spaatz, says the British United Press Algiers correspondent. The intention to make North Africa one of the main bases for an air offensive overshadowing even the present attacks has made the formation of a new force necessary. The Fifteenth Air Force, combined with the Twelfth, ■which has been in North Africa since tie Allied invasion, will form one of the most formidable striking forces the world has ever seen. It will consist mainly of Flying Fortresses and Liberators.