The Whale Has Wings Vol 3 - Holding the Barrier by David Row Read Free Book Online Page A

high explosive bombs to damage and degrade the cities defences while opening up buildings with blast damage. This will be followed by the Halifax force, using incendiaries and some smaller bombs to keep the city from fighting the fires until they are well established. Finally, the last part of the Lancaster force will again drop HE bombs to hinder the firefighting and cause more damage. In order to confuse the Luftwaffe defences further, Wellingtons and Coastal Command will carry out Gardening raids on the coast and in the river/canal network in northern Germany.
     
    In the Mediterranean, Operation Remus is put into operation. This has been planned in advance, a contingency plan if the Japanese were to attack in the East. It consists of a steady program of bombing raids on Italy (particularly on any harbours), small Commando raids, mining, and a general low level but continuous program of annoyance to keep the Italians busy and off balance. While there is still hope the spring offensive may go as planned (if perhaps late), Remus is designed to keep pressure on Italy while not forcing the Allies to commit too many forces.
     
    The weather again causes a lull in the air attacks in the Philippines. With more pilots than planes, only experienced pilots are to fly, and the fighters are now reserved for reconnaissance missions.
     
    In Malaya, the Japanese stage a heavy raid on Penang Island, attacking ships in the harbour and the town itself and causing significant civilian casualties. From a military point of view, the attack achieved little.  Most of the Japanese aircraft now established in Siam were engaged in aiding their troops to push south. This is a problem for the RAF; with fewer aircraft than the Japanese, they can either use them to attack the Japanese at sea or the army at land, but not both. For the moment, priority is given to the naval element, as the RAF units have not received much training in army support. Most of the operations in the north are now to be staged out of Taiping airfield, which is far enough to the north to allow raids while being the northernmost airfield inside the radar net. As in the Philippines, it is noted that the Japanese use a tactic of attacking an airfield in a number of small strikes, intended to catch planes after they have returned from a mission or from defence of the base, and destroy them on the ground. The results of the Luftwaffe raids on RAF airfields during the Battle of Britain had showed that it was very difficult to close an airfield down for long with bomb damage. The Japanese seem to be trying a different tactic which involves using small raids to keep the defenders busy, and catch aircraft on the ground when they inevitably have to refuel. The tactic has been quite effective on the exposed northern airfields, but the RAF command feels that it will be far less successful once the Japanese have to attack bases under the cover of the radar net, when it will be possible to concentrate the defending fighters against a small raid.
     
    In a welcome boost to the defence force, 30 Beaufighters arrive from Australia. The versatile plane has suffered heavily in the past few days, and the new aircraft will allow the RAF to stage limited aggressive attacks again. While the pilots of the two squadrons are not sufficiently trained for Park's standards, there are experienced pilots available and these will be used in preference to the new pilots. There is also news that 50 Hurricanes have been removed from the Russian supply route in Iran and are being shipped east; they are expected in Ceylon in a few weeks, where they will be assembled and flown out to Singapore. Additional planes and equipment as well as replacement pilots are being loaded onto a convoy in Britain, but even going through the Mediterranean it will not arrive for some time.
     
     
    Dec 12th
     
    Force Z had now destroyed one Japanese reconnaissance plane, and fighters operating out of Singapore at least one more. The