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Australia’s War Diary- December 1940
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50 Years Ago …
Over England the night Blitz continues. With winter weather daylight operations by RAF Fighter Command are limited to patrols and interception of stray reconnaissance aircraft. Elsewhere, Greek forces push the invading Italians back into Albania. This month the tide of battle will continue to worsen for the Italians, especially in North Africa. Hitler had first proposed aid to Mussolini on November 20 and during December airfields in Sicily will be allocated for the Luftwaffe’s use in preparation for heavy attacks on Malta and the British Mediterranean Fleet. December 4 – Greece. RAF reinforcements arrive from Egypt in the form of four Gladiators of 112 Squadron led by F/Lt CH Fry from Newcastle NSW.
December 5 – Britain. F/Lt Harry Daish of the RAF’s Photographic Reconnaissance Unit (PRU), formerly Sidney Cotton’s Photographic Development Unit (POU), flies his last reconnaissance mission from Heston before being posted away. A Point Cook graduate, Daish has flown high speed, long range unarmed reconnaissance Spitfires since February, 1940. After the Rench collapse the unit’s main task had been to closely monitor European ports from Norway to Spain. At first this had been from high altitude but afterwards, particularly with Increasing weather, it became necessary to fly fast, !low level sorties over the Channel ports to photograph any Indicat1on of German invasion preparations. For these roles the Spitfires, converted Mk Is, had been fitted with cameras (usually F-24s) in a variety of wing mounted and fuselage mounted configurations.
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