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This public relations release discusses the actions of No.23 Squadron, based in Sardinia, in the early part of 1944.
H-482, February 12 1944
Issued by R.A.F. Public Relations
Lone night raiders of an R.A.F. Mosquito squadron now shooting up German transport in northern Italy made 68 attacks on road vehicles during the past month while 43 trains were bombed or shot up with cannon and machine guns.
Not one aircraft was lost on these operations.
The main work of the squadron, which belongs to the Mediterranean Allied Coastal Air Force, is to harry and destroy road and rail transport supplying the German battle lines in Italy.
Their sorties by night thus complement the work of the strategic and tactical aircraft, which bomb road and rail choke points, and of the Coastal Air Force B-25 Mitchells and Spitfires, which bomb shipping, the only alternative means of supply, trying to creep along the coast from ports in the south of France across the Gulf of Genoa and down the west of Italy.
The outstanding example of a road convoy attack during the month was provided by a flight sergeant who blew up 20 vehicles near Rimini.
When the squadron first started attacking road convoys in northern Italy they found columns of lorries going along the roads with their headlights blazing. The Mosquitoes took such good advantage of these easy targets that nowdays lights are doused and the convoys pull into the side of the road when the drivers hear the aircraft engines.
The Mosquitoes are thus delaying convoys over the whole of northern Italy, and upsetting their schedules in addition to destroying many vehicles.