ABSTRACT
Pilots are given a general area, usually well behind the enemy lines, in which to find and attack with bombs and machine-gun fire, any target of tactical value. They use their own discretion and initiative as to the targets they select for attack. These targets include ... M.T. [motor transport], bridges, camps and barracks, trains, defence works, airfields, ships or barges and fuel dumps ... 1
fighter aircraft are sent out to look for ground targets and attack therrI. At the same time, pilots bring back any possible information about the enemy ground situation. 2
COMPARATIVE LOSSES
The principal reason for the difference in casualties is that flak was concentrated to defend such typical armed reconnaissance targets as airfields, headquarters, supply dumps, and vital points in the communications network. In the front line, except in support of heavily
THE IMPACT OF ARMED RECONNAISSANCE
All types of aircraft have played a part in interdiction: reconnaissance planes through surveillance and bomb-damage assessment; fighter-bombers on armed-reconnaissance patrols, mediums and heavies by obstruction of the arteries of movement and destruction of the things to be moved. 29
All the evidence indicates that, with regard to road movement, effective interdiction, if it demanded the prevention of all or very nearly all supplies reaching the battlefront, would have been very difficult to impose.
