A senior RAP. officer said, "The Italians may yet some assistance from Germany, We have a reasonably Tong rond to travel, but prospects on-abling us to get to the and of the road are very much better than two and one-half months ago."
He said the RAF, in the Middle Bast had downed' more than 500 Italian planes since Italy entered the "war and had made about 2,000 raids on all fronts, of which one-third were in Libya and the remainder Abyssinia, Albania, Greece, Eritrea and Somaliland.
In the same period, the R.A, loss was less than 100 planes, while -one Squadron had downed "40 Italian planes in two months.—United Press, lost several advance bases and is suffering a severe shortage in sup-ties, particularly petrol, thanks to the British Navy.
Two hundred and fifty Italian air~ raft, namely about half the original Mahan strength in Libya, were cer~ tainly destroyed between December 7 and January 7 for the loss of less than 20 British planes. It is considered highly probable that 123 were battered on the ground during R.A. raids and the capture of 40 of these unserviceable condition Eladem suggests that as the British capture new airfields it may be found that Italian air losses have been much heavier than at preseat fs Desert aerodromes are particularly vulnerable as it is almost Impossible to hide aircraft by: dispersal Strain on Graziani The strain on the alr arm of Marshal Garziani, Italian Commander-in-Chief in Libya, is shown by the fact that Italian alr activity has dropped steadily after the British capture of lying only for two days, January 4 and January 5, in a frantic and fruitless effort to save Bardia.
No Italian air operations have been reported from the Dodecanese islands. since the outbreak of the Greek war, the Mahan Air Force there having: been virtually "strafed" and starved ut of existence by combined RAP. activities and @ naval blockade.
The plight of Italian squadrons in East Africa is nearly as bad and it is noticeable that their operations have been severely restricted for some weeks. It is considered that these squadrons, numbering at the most 150 aircraft, are in such straits for lack of supplies that the maintenance of full-scale operations is impossible.
Meanwhile, the R.A.P. in the Middle East is growing steadily stronger. The RAF. spokesman in Cairo has just said that reinforcements are Pouring in "more rapidly than "we months ago."—Reuter,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.