Flying Fortresses played vital role at Dieppe
Called greatest threat to Germans since 1,000-plane RAF raids
London, England (UP) –
United States Army Flying Fortress raids on German-occupied territory emerged today as a vitally important feature of the Allied raid on Dieppe and as a potent of new, early attacks on the French invasion coast.
Official reports assessing the final results of the Dieppe raid showed that it was far more than a grand-scale Commando attack. As part of it, the British Fleet fired hundreds of shells into key targets and planes, in addition to providing a protective umbrella, dropped 261,000 pounds of high explosive and fragmentation bombs to knock out enemy strongpoints and kill ground troops.
A detailed study of the Dieppe raid convinced many observers that the Commandos would have achieve a smashing victory instead of a moderate success if they had employed dive bombers and parachutists.
Allied quarters, assessing the role of the giant B-17 Boeing bombers in the “second-front rehearsal” attack on Dieppe, said they were the greatest threat to the Germans after the 1,000-plane raids of the Royal Air Force.
Heavy raid on Amiens
Fortresses, in a raid which was clearly a following of the Dieppe operation and a hint at other, bigger combined operations, made a devastating attack yesterday on the railroad center of Amiens.
In three straight days, while the Allied ground forces were preparing to attack Dieppe, while they were attacking and while they were returning to their depots, the Fortresses had shattered the railroad yards of three of the most important communications centers behind the French coast.
3 railyards blasted
First, they had attacked Rouen, then Abbeville and yesterday they attacked Amiens.
Reports to United States Army Air Forces and Royal Air Force headquarters left little doubt that the railroad yards at all three towns, the only ones from which the Dieppe area could be quickly reinforced by rail, had been knocked out.
In the entire three days of high-altitude precision bombing, not a single Fortress had been lost.
Royal Air Force, American Army, Canadian and Allied fighter squadrons, totaling more than 500 planes, made the greatest single sweep ever carried over the continent yesterday as the Fortress bombed Amiens. The sweep was carefully coordinated with the Fortress raid to cover an area of French invasion territory which the Allies may hit soon again in greater force.
Serve tea and cake
An authorized informant revealed that British Commandos captured the Dieppe racetrack and converted it into a temporary landing field. They advised planes by wireless that the field was ready and that tea and cakes were being served at a nearby church. One pilot did land on the racecourse, his plane damaged. He burned it and came home with the Commandos.
A definitive communiqué last night of the Combined Operations Headquarters said that the Dieppe raid was a successful demonstration of the coordination of the Navy, Army and Air Force.
The communiqué said the Germans had heavily reinforced the entire invasion coast with guns as well as men but that nevertheless the Allied troops landed at all beaches selected, destroyed two coastal gun batteries, a radio location station, inflicted heavy casualties on the Germans, sank two small vessels and brought back a number of prisoners.
It was admitted that the destroyer Berkeley (904 tons) and “a fairly large number” of invasion craft were lost. Berkeley was so seriously damaged its crew sank it. Most of the crew were saved.