Evening star., 1942-12-13
300 RAF Fighters
Assist in Raid;
18 Planes Bogged
BY the Associated Press.

LONDON, Dec. 12.-The rolling
and widespread Allied aerial Of
fenSives dealt a blow with Amer
ican heavy bombers and Allied
escort squadrons today on Ger
man industries and transport at
Rouen, France, with the resultant
destruction of 18 enemy fighter
planes in bitter aerial combat.
Two bombers and four Allied
fighters were reported missing, but
the pilot of one of the fighters was
declared safe.
In all, the Allies knocked down
20 enemy fighters in battles close
to British home bases RAF Of
fensive patrols accounted for two
without loss to themselves in at
tacks on an airfield and canal
barges in Holland, but the British
lost one plane from other patrols
during the day.
Three hundred RAF fighter
planes co-operated with a large
force" of United States heavy bomb
erS in the smash at Rouen. a quick
daylight follow-up to another at
tack last night on Turin, italian
industrial city.
Planes Cross Channel i'm RELAYS.
For four and half hours relays
of fighter SquadronS crossed and re-
crossed the Channel to clear enemy
fighters from the path of the Amer
ican bombers.
Polish, French, Belgian, New Zea-
land, Canadian and Australian
squadrons were included among the
fighters, and many a pilot returned
to tell of exciting combat with Ger
man pursuits.
Because of bad weather, results
were not seen" at Rouen, but the
strong enemy opposition indicated
the American bombers were over
their targets for some time. giving
the Germans the opportunity to
rise to combat.
The bombers shot down IA of the
enemy planes and the escort bagged
the other four over ,Rouen. 1t was
the biggest score for the heavily
armored bombers since November %
when they destroyed Is.
Rouen, a river port city and rail-
way center inland from LIE Havre,
was the objective of the first Flying
Fortress raids in Europe last Au-
gust and was attacked again by
American airmen in September. To-
days third American raid was the
10th by the Allies on Rouen since
1910.
Continuation of Raids Hinted.
There was evidence that the wide
spread weekend air raids might be
carried through the night, for the
radio at Calais shut down after the
Rouen raids were over and the trans
mitter at Lyon, deep in France, quit
the air at 8 pm, suggesting that the
big Raj bombers might be winging
explosives to Italy again.
The in-fghting today against
nearby objectives carried on the
new series of aerial attacks from
various widely separated Allied bases
against Axis production and trans
port, from the frigid areas of Europe
to the subtropical fighting fronts.
Big American Liberator bombers
inflicted heavy damage on Naples
yesterday while Allied air fleets
struck at weather. bound Turin and
with further successes at Axis trans
ports on the wing, at the Tunisian
ports of Axis entry and at Marshal
Erwin Rommels army beyond Ell
Agheila.
The Italians admitted the damage
was great in the raid on shipping at
Naples, where the first American
attack on the previous Friday sank
one cruiser, crippled a battleship
and damaged another cruiser, but
they said battered Turin was only
slightly damaged by the latest raid
Hits Scored on Ships.
The American communique from
Cairo announced heavy bombers of
the 9Th United States Army Air
Force set large fires at Naples in
daylight, with hits observed on the
Vittorio Emmanuel and Viga moles,
and scored also on a medium mer-
chairman moored at the Massaniello
mole and other ships in the target
area.
There was no mention of warships
present or attacked in the second
raid on Naples, which has become
the fountainhead of Axis supplies
to North Africa since the RAF raids
crippled Genoa.