DEFENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 37, 14 February 1939, Page 6

DEFENCE.

MENACE OF THE AIR.

(To the Editor.)

Lord Jellicoe recommended in the New" Zealand Report that three light cruisers, tix submarines and a submarine parent ship be provided by 1926. What would be his report now, in face of the air menace? I submit the Navy is powerless to ward off an air attack, and I claim extreme vulnerability for « ships of war of battleship size downwards. The defence of the port of Auckland would appear to be directed chiefly against sea attack. In my opinion the future will prove the attack to be solely by air. Utter ruth- l lessness will be its chief feature, -Bombers >'- attacking will he well covered by fighter*.. ~ The bombers would probably carry two kilo- (u weight bombs, slightly over four pounds, each to bomber carrying a thousand such bombs able to cause 200 separate fires. Auckland would so be introduced for the first and last time to the incendiary missile, small enough to*'--' be cast down in showers, scarifying where •'-., they touch and setting all alight. It can be v assumed by the ease with which foreigners ashore in Auckland use cameras that commerce - nerve centres, oil holders, electric power stations, grain store*. Ar.iptini and such hate been pen-pointed against the day of attack. " Neither armies nor navies can effect complete' * surprise, but an air force is always able to. 5 -*" do so. The logical method is to get in the" '. first blow and make it as overwhelming as possible. The enemy requires no miracle of achievement. The machinery of attack is all ' too simple. If mass murder of the populace can be perpetrated from the air, which is . undeniable, and by that means Victory gained, of what use are the Army and Navy? A " private slaughter of their own would be absurd. One thing is certain—time is too short for verbiage and division of opinion. We are in the grip of a great necessity. At the moment ' • our course is plain. It is to put defence first ! at whatever the cost. The choice lies between ' surrender or a fight to the finish. TRAFALGAR