'PLANES IN WAR.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 285, 2 December 1925, Page 8

'PLANES IN WAR.

•TJCCESSFTJL OPERATIONS IN INDIA. 42 DAYS' BOMBING. CALCUTTA, November 20. Most interesting details are contained in a dispatch published to-day under ihe signatures of General Sir Claude Jacob, late Acting Commander-in-Chief, and Air Vice-Marshal Sir Edward Ellington, air officer commanding in India. During March, April and May the Royal Air Force was solely responsible for the operations in Waziristan. The results were most satisfactory, though General Jacob was of opinion that better results would have been secured had military forces combined in the operations.

The operations lasted S4 days, and on 42 out of the first 45 days bombing was carried out. This is said to bo the longest continuous operations carried out by aircraft since the close of the war. There was flying done for 2070 hours, plus 050 hours of other flying in connection with the operations. There was only one fatal accident, one machine and two pilots being lost. Air Marshal Ellington says the difficulties of the operations were greatly enhanced by the late date on which the Government of India sanctioned the operations, when the best weather was over. The under-estimation of the financial requirements of the Royal Air Forco during 1024-1925 resulted in a shortaec of the necessary number of serviceable aeroplanes and engines, amounting for the air force as a whole to 27 aeroplanes and 40 engines, and by the end of the operations to 35 aeroplanes and 54 engines.