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Enemy Air-Borne Forces, Military Intelligence Service, Special Series No. 7, December 2, 1942
[DISCLAIMER: The following text is taken from the wartime U.S. War Department publication. As with all wartime intelligence information, data may be incomplete or inaccurate. No attempt has been made to update or correct the text. Any views or opinions expressed do not necessarily represent those of the website.]

66. PRELIMINARY BOMBING AND MACHINE-GUNNING

The Germans are likely to subject the areas where descents by air-borne troops are intended to take place to a short but intensive preliminary dive-bombing and machine-gunning attack against such objectives as antiaircraft guns, airdrome defenses, and troop positions. Accompanying fighter support will also be used where resistance by Allied fighters is anticipated. In Crete, though Allied troops had no fighter cover, casualties directly attributable to dive-bombing attacks were comparatively few when troops were dispersed and in foxholes (slit trenches), although these attacks greatly hampered movement of the defending forces by day. This bombing will cease in the areas selected for descents as soon as the airborne troops start to arrive, but is likely to be continued all around the objective. At Malemé the dust of the air bombardment hid from view the first landings, which were made by gliders.
 

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