Us Official Photographs

Bombers in Northern Italy

Wherever the Luftwaffe bases its planes in the Battle for Italy, the bombers of the Strategic Air Force hunt them down, smash their fields and hangars. Bombs here are carpetting the landing area of Villaorba, in Northern Italy at the head of the Adriatic. Hit first on the night of January 8 by the Wellingtons of the RAF, this target was hit again by the Fortresses of the 15th Air Force on the 16th, and finally on the night of the 17th by the Wellingtons once more. By the dawn of D-day, when the Allies landed south of Rome, Villaorba was another Italian airdrome that the Luftwaffe could not use.