"VERY CHEERING."

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 69, 22 March 1941, Page 9

"VERY CHEERING."

British Reply To German Night Bombing. 27 PLANES IN THREE NIGHTS. British Official Wireless. RUGBY, Mar. 21. "The night battle has l>een encouraging this month," said an air authority in a broadcast talk. "Twenty-seven night bombers certainly destroyed in three successive nights. That is very cheering. It would have been if we cotild have kept it up, but the ; figures will rise again. "Do not be discouraged. Do not suppose it was just a flash in the pan. We know why the figures fell and wo are not discouraged. The moon has waned and we cannot expect high figures. "To' bring off a night encounter still needs great luck, fortitude and skill. But our night flying crews with their cat eyes, and with other things, are getting more accustomed to the difficult task. The recent night successes came from all departments of defence—guns, fighters, balloons and other things. "The gunners' problems had been magnified by two modern air factors— great height and great speed. Fortunately gunners and scientists are ingenious and diligent people. As a result gunners can bring down bombers by day and night nowadays with an average number of rounds which is small compared with the figures of the last war or even of last year. That is due to good training and good methods. "Perhaps the greatest service the guns, searchlights and balloons do for us is to keep the bombers high where they cannot aim bomb 6. These ground defence weapons are deadly at the height that best suits tlieir particular nature. Look what the guns did recently—l 6 bombers down in three days." Referring to what he called as interesting and useful sideline, the British night bombers, he said they had shot down eight or nine enemy fighters in the last week or two, while German bombers over Britain had not been able to shoot down a single British night fighter.

MAY VISIT LONDON. JAPANESE FOREIGN MINISTER. (Reed. 2 p.m.) NEW YORK, Mar. 21. An Associated Press report from Berlin states that a usually reliable Japanese source in Berlin indicated that the Japanese Foreign Minister, Mr. Matsuoka, might Tint London. Authoritative Germans declare that they do not know of any such extension »f ' Mr. Matsuoka's plans.