BOMBER DOWN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 282, 29 November 1938, Page 9

BOMBER DOWN.

FARMER NEARLY HIT.

Father Struck Dead in Crash

In Same Field.

OLD ROMANCE RECALLED

Cntted Press Association.—Copyright.

(Received 10 a.m.)

SYDNEY, this day. During a test flight yesterday prior to departing for Canberra and Melbourne to-day, one of the reeordbieakmg Vickers Wellesley bombers nas compelled to make a forced landin ° ! n « Ploughed field near Richmond. The crew of five was uninjured, but .severely shaken.

r lhc machine wag considerably damaged. The undercarriage was buckled, the wheels were stripped, a wing wa3 torn off, the propellers were severely bent and the engine was embedded in the ground.

Mr. Malcolm Smith, a farmer, who was engaged in harrowing, had to fall on lus face to avoid being struck by a wing of the aeroplane, and his horse bolted.

The paddock where the mishap occurred belonged to Mr. Smith, whose lather was decapitated by an Air Force plane, which had .to force a landing three years ago in the same paddock. Mr. R. Somerville, the pilot of this particular 'p 1 Inter married Mr. Smith's daughter. Mr. Sonierville was afterwards killed in an Air Force 'plane crash at Point Cook.

"SHEER HUMBUG. ,,

Air Minister's Views Strongly

Condemned.

FORCE OF BOMBERS NEEDED

LONDON*, November 22

Strongly criticising the Government's recent reversal of air policy bv concentrating on fighters rather "than on bombers, the journal "Aeroplane," describes the defensive attitude as "defeatist."

This is how the two types of aircraft are compared in one of its articles:—

It i.s ne«'.-.-ary to have forces capable «f aggression, and the best form of defence would be the enemy's knowledge that we have an overwhelming force of offensive bombers.

The truth is that fighters are much easier and-quicker to turn out. but only 50 per cent as efficient as they arc ineffective in thick weather. On the other hand, bombers prefer thick weather.

High speed, long-range bombers, with escorts capable of a similar performance, are the only things worth building.

"It is sheer humbug that the Air Minister, Sir Kingsley Wood, talks about relying on the fighter for defence. It is also a dangerous form of eye-wash," the journal adds.