On March 12, fast bombers set out to make a long sweep of the Dutch coast. They went without any escort fighters and did not try to hide behind the clouds and from that day on there were wide patches of clear sky over the North Sea. A vessel of about 2000 tons was sighted and Successfully bombed. The offensive then began in earnest and every day the enemy's seaboard was swept for the vessels which might attempt to creep along the coast.
The enemy's first heavy loss came with the sinking of two tankers each of 6.000 tons and with powerful escort flak ships to attest to their value Regularly and systematically 1,600 miles of coastline from Sogner Fjord in Norway to Bordeaux on the Atlantic Coast of France has been swept and the enemy has never known where or what time of the day the R.A, F. would strike.
"The loss of ships thus entrusted to the waves which Germany cannot rule does not measure the whole extent of the toll which the RA.F. exacted. The strain has been put back on her railways and she ha: had to make new efforts to protect the furtive convoys and their cargoes of stolen goods.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.