WIDE INTEREST.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 13, 16 January 1940, Page 7

WIDE INTEREST.

BRITISH EXPLOIT. Flight Over Prague And Vienna. BLACK-OUT IS SEQUEL. British Official Wireless. (Received 11.30 a.m.) RUGBY, January 10. The remarkable record flight by machines of the R.A.F. Bomber Command last Friday night over Southern Germany, and as far as Vienna and Prague, eaptured the imagination of the public. The German High Command refers to the exploit in a single sentence which states, "Isolated enemy aircraft carried out a reconnaissance flight over German territory," but the German News Agency, in an attempt to minimise the significance of the flights, claims they were made at nigllt and did not reach as far as Bratislava, and turned back for home west of l'rague and Vicuna. The ''Daily Telegraph"' contrasts this flight of over 10(10 miles over German territory and 1000 miles hack without a single casualty ill machines or men, •with the vain attempts all last, week of the German bombers to elude the British coastal defences. Brilliant Survey. Referring to the dropping of le i (lets on Vienna and Prague during this reo;>nliaissance flight, the "Daily Telegraph" says, "Even where Hitlerisin rules, the truth of the facts will seep through into men's minds. From this most brilliant survey flight of the war it will become known to Germans that the Fuehrer cannot defend them from the air power of the Allies, and that the most remote part of the Reich is not safo when Britain and France choose to strike." The "Dally Telegraph" continues to point out tiie range of the Wellington bomber with a full war load is' far greater than 2000 miles, and recalls that Britain already possesses a small.>r type j of bomber which lias done over TOOO miles non-stop. Referring to this flight, the "Manchester Guardian ' "li; no other way in history has such a tremendous sweep of reconnaissance into enemy territory been carried out. Precautions Taken. "Elsewhere," the "Guardian" says, "that British aeroplanes could have "own so far unmolested, and have dropped leaflets, will certainly have aroused intense, even if concealed, enthusiasm in Vienna and Prague. If similar flights can be made over Warsaw the effect would also be very great. "The effect of this flight on the German authorities has apparently been real, for according to a Zurich Press report the German military authorities have decreed that thorough blackout conditions are to be enforced immediately throughout Austria, and although the reason given is economy of coal, all Vienna realises tho real reason is the rpcent British flight over Vienna.