Скачать или смотреть Why Germany Realised the Skies Belonged to America After 70 Planes Fell in 15 Minutes

On 18 April 1943, over the Sicilian Strait west of Cape Bon, Germany’s belief in its air bridge to North Africa collapsed in a single afternoon. P-40 Warhawks of the US 57th Fighter Group, flying with RAF Spitfires, dove on a huge formation of Ju 52 and Me 323 transports trying to supply the trapped Axis armies in Tunisia. In barely fifteen minutes, dozens of lumbering cargo aircraft were burning on the sea or crash-landing along the Sicilian coast. That engagement was the centerpiece of Operation Flax, a sustained April 1943 campaign that destroyed hundreds of German and Italian transports and finally severed the last reliable supply line into Tunisia. Without fuel, ammunition, or spare parts, Panzer units ground to a halt and more than a quarter-million Axis troops ended the campaign as prisoners. This episode follows the ambush in the strait, the quiet that followed over Tunis, and the post-war German admissions that after Flax, the daylight sky over the decisive theatre no longer belonged to the Luftwaffe – it belonged to America.

#WW2 #AirPower #OperationFlax #P40Warhawk #Luftwaffe #Tunisia1943 #NorthAfricaCampaign #MilitaryHistory