Word: messina
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...plane after plane and the tents grew small. The group orbited round & round, forming up, and as they did so another huge group fell in, and others too, and over them all the fighters nervously ranged back and forth. Finally the roar peeled off across the sky toward Messina...
...morning Operations sent around men, woke all crews. After their breakfast they were all carried in many trucks to have their briefing. The target was to be Messina, Sicily's ferry terminus. The huge briefings broke into small briefings, in which formations were assigned, navigational data set out and targets defined...
What happened at Messina is an old story now. [In 18 minutes the Fortresses saturated the port and marshaling yards so thoroughly that when the raid was over the target, area was obscured by fire and smoke. The Germans attacked viciously, flying into their own flak while the Forts made their bombing runs, dropping small bombs on the tight formations of the U.S. planes. In the bitter fight over Messina, 20 Nazis were shot down. But the Forts got through and hit two ships in the harbor, plastered warehouses, docks, railroad tracks, stations. Despite the heavy Axis defenses, total Allied...
...importance of what happened at Messina was its scale. Probably the biggest lesson of Tunisia was a very simple one: given planes which are not too violently different in quality, the side with the numbers wins. We did not start winning until we achieved numerical superiority in the air, but when we did we almost could not lose...
This matter of numbers may seem obvious, but it should not be forgotten. This raid on Messina, the biggest in this theater, was a reminder of the most important fundamental in our air offensive-one which in the future will grow increasingly important until...