Several reasons have been suggested for the failure of the German air offensive.

So far the war's great unknown is the impact of the allied air offensive on Iraq's main ground forces.

Taking control of the airport would weaken the government's air offensive.

They had not been able to get airborne in time to do anything but watch as the entire Russian air offensive seemed to destroy itself.

The air offensive, they hoped, would be enough to convince the British to sue for peace.

Open warfare started with a Soviet air offensive on 25 June.

Official sources later confirmed that these aircraft had immediately joined the air offensive against Iraq.

As a result, Iran was virtually unable to launch any major offensives (other than the air offensive).

Fighting continued on the ground on Monday despite the continued air offensive.

After this there was a pause in the air offensive, as the official despatch states: