Evening star., 1943-10-31
More German Planes
Destroyed in October
Than Any War Month
2, the Associated Pres,

illdn AHy wal FIUIIlH
By the Associated Press
LONDON, Oct. 30.-The Unitet
States 9th Air Force Significant,
expanded the scope Of its operation
in October, making raids from tn
Atlantic Coast to Poland and draw
ing from the German Air Force it
most overt admission to date of it
depletion-failure to send up
single Nazi fighter in two raids OF
important French targets.
1t was a record month for Ger,
man planes destroyed-mor thar
600-as we'll as in American plane.
lost-174 heavy bombers.
Despite several recent heavy losses
data compiled by the Associated
Press from official and other reliabl.
sources indicate that the 9th All
Forces bombing campaign, the only
American blow against Germany it.
self so far, is being carried out with.
IN the 5 per cent casualty average
considered operationally economical
Lost 730 Big Bombers.
Combat losses in about 100 raid.
made since the start of operation.
| Is months ago have been about 81
fighters, 20 medium bombers anc
/ 730 heavy bombers, representing
roughly $200000000 worth of equip
ment and about 5000 flyers. of whom
it is estimated at least half are safe
The economical per cent loss rate
does not refer to permissible sacri.
| flee against an individual target
since military considerations might
warrant the expenditure Of a large
portion Of the task force to wipe
out major objective: the rate re.
ferS rather to the level, considering
replacement problems. necessary t(
maintain operations in full gear.
October's record of 600 German
planes DESTROYED and 174 heavy
bomberS lost in seven raids broke
the August record of SAL German
craft destroyed and ia bomber;
lost.
Spells of bad weather kept the
heavy raids down to three less
than Septembers record 10. Tht
medium bombers went out five days
as compared with almost daily op.
erations in September No medium
bombers were lost this month.
Sohreiv,f,trt oce
Flying Fortresses for the first
time penetrated beyond Germany
to bomb Danzig and Gdynia, Po-
land. only $50 miles from Russia
Their peak loss for a raid was the
so shot down from a force of about
200 in the october IA raid on the
ball-bearing plant at SchWeinfurt
The FortreSSeS suffered their low
est proportional casualties to date
in deep-penetration raid in the
attack on a Frankfurt propeller
factory october 4, when II were
lost.
Long tWin-engine fighters
returned to operations in the Euro
pean theater, where they had not
been seen since the North African
landing OF year ago. Along with
Thunderbolts, they for the first time
supplemented the regular RAF Spit
fire escort for Marauder medium
bombers.
Marauders on October % and RAF
Typhoons again on October 29
bombed Nazi airfields in France at
without encountering. any
|Ge1fnan planes The inescapa BILE
in1rficatfon was that the German
air force IS too short OF craft to
send any up.
Forces Spread Thin"
The giSt of the months comments
on the German air force from a
number of American and British air
officials was that while it still had a
lot Of planes. possibly more than in
1899. Allied attacks on an increasing
front have pretty we'll stopped any
expansion and have spread its forces
too thin to protect all Reich terri
tory adequately.
The German Home Security Min
lStrV announced that since April I,
l943 total of 102 ,486 persons have
been killed in Allied raids on Ham
burg, Hanover. KasSel. Frankfurt
and eight other large cities, and to-
night the German radio reported
that Marshal Hermann Goering had
just finished three-week inspection
tour of German and French air de-
fences and bombed cities and gave
personal directives for further emer-
genCy and relief measures"
Hanover and Kassel both We're
bombed twice, and Frankfurt and
Bremen once by the RAF during
nine big night raids Of the month
IN these 1853 Raj bombers were lost
against 189 in nine raids in Sep
tember and 293 in IA raids in
August.
Drub AirfieldS
In daylight sweeps RAF light
bombers dealt steady drubbing to
French and Dutch airfeldS. power
facilities. trains, docks and shipping
concentrating particularly on the
Cherbourg Peninsula.
During its 16 months of operation
the American force has lost 73O
heavy bombers and the RAF has
lost about $500, representing some
$500 100000 in equipment and prob
ably more than $4,000 men.
The count for the whole war as
cOmDiled bV the authoritative ci-
william weekly, Aeroplane, stands at
12159 Allied planes lost as against
18026 for the Axis. mainly ovel
Europe aud excluding Russia aho
the Orient The toll in men is put
at 48470 for the Allies and 39,l82
for the Axis.
Onkee