The Auckland Star WITH WHICH AND INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo and The Sun. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1939. NAZI AIR CHALLENGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 246, 18 October 1939, Page 6

The Auckland Star WITH WHICH AND INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo and The Sun.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1939. NAZI AIR CHALLENGE.

For the cause that Lacks assistance, For the icron/j that vceds resistance, For the future in ihe distance, And the good that we can do.

The air raid over the Firth of forth, closely followed by others over Scapa Flow, indicates that the Nazis intend to persist in their efforts to show that the bombing' 'plane can destroy, or at least seriously damage, fighting ships. Their earlier efforts in the North Sea were not successful, but they are now carrying the attack to the Navy in its home ports, to ports where, in the last war, tkaval units or whole fleets could lie in security. None of this week's raids has been successful. They caused | casualties and damage, but, compared with the havoc which can be and i has been wrought by a single torpedo, both the casualties and the damage were negligible. The chief effect will be to make clear to the public what was already known to naval men, that in this war the Navy can never relax its vigilance. There are places where it - niav feel assured of relative immunity from submarine attack, but no place within the range of the bombing 'plane c?n be accounted safe. It is a fact which has to be faced, a new condition to which —we may feel confident—the Navy will adapt itself. It would be foolish to expect that in the process of adaptation there will not be turther casualties and damage. The Navy's duties are not such that it can always ''play safe," or would wish to do so. It is defending the very life of England. The knowledge that in serving the purpose of its existence it must face new hazards will not daunt it.

The description of the raid over the Firth of Forth provokes the reflection that the dangers of modern aerial warfare to civil life have yet to be fully assessed and the defences against them tested. The bombers were preceded, apparently some hours before, by scouting 'planes, which were seen but could not be engaged. The bombers themselves reached their objective and dropped their bombs, but w©(« speedily engaged both by fighters and the anti-aircraft batteries. Roughly one-third of the attacking force was lost, and possibly the loss was greater before the surviving 'planes returned to their base. This was a considerable percentage of loss and the Nazis can feel no confidence that in another raid it would not be greater. On the other hand, the bombers evidently were careful to attack only military objectives. Had they been ordered to attack the civil population serious loss of life and damage to property could scarcely have been averted. So far the Nazis have not bombed civilians in the United Kingdom or France; but they had no scruples in Poland, where they did not fear retaliation. The conclusion to be drawn from these raids in Scotland, which are undoubtedly the forerunners of many more, is that the air defences of the United Kingdom, which are known to have been vastly improved in the last twelvo months, are likely to be fully tested. And all the help which the Dominions can give, and are preparing to give increasingly, will be both welcome and necessary.