SELECTING AIR TARGETS

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 283, 24 August 1940, Page 12

SELECTING AIR TARGETS

How The R.A.F. Works PLANNING RAIDS ON GERMANY

(British official Wireless.) (Received August 23, 7 p.m.) RUGBY, August 22. In view of the estimate that the Royal Air Force bombers in their raids since May 10 have flown more than 3,000,000 miles over country where General Goering had boasted that no British aeroplane could penetrate, a description of the care with which the bombers’ targets are selected and the raids planned is of interest.

A detailed knowledge of the target is the duty of station intelligence officers who have spent hours over photographs and reports of reconnaissance (lights and of previous raids, and they are as familiar with the layout of the objective as if they had built, the place themselves. The next step is to convey this information to every member of every crew taking part. Naturally, the navigators are most intimately concerned, and at the information conference which is held before a raid each navigator is given the most accurate chart of the target and. the surrounding country. . Then the target is described by an intelligence officer, with the aid of photographs and plans projected on a screen. Every aspect of the matter is fully discussed and the plan of attack is formulated. As each bomber becomes an independent unit as soon as the aerodrome is left the crews then work out their own plans. A.s the zero hour approaches, the crews assemble ready for the journey, and, dead on time, the first bomber leaves the.ground.

In the operations room the intelligence officers await wireless messages reporting on the raid. The signal they most dread is that intimating that one of the aircraft has been hit, and when this happens the aeroplane concerned tries to keep in touch, but sometimes there is a silence, and the log book then reads: “Last heard of at such and such a time.” Eventually the final signals are received that the last bomber has dropped its load on the target area. On their return the pilots and navigators are carefully examined on their stories, and each statement is tested against the other. This is done by one well accustomed to weigh evidence, and often the examiner is a barrister. From these reports a single accurate picture is built up and the result of the whole thing reflected in the success of British raids.

BIGGER AND FASTER R.A.F. BOMBERS

Powerful New Types Will

Be In Service Soon

(British Official Wireless.l RUGBY, August 22. The success of British fighter aircraft in defending Britain, and of bombers in attacks on Germany and enemy-occupied territories, lias not led the authorities here to relax their efforts to produce more powerful machines in the bomber classes. According to reliable reports, new British bombers soon to be brought into service are twice as powerful in every respect as those now in use, and despite their great size are extraordinarily fast. One feature of the new bombm-s is stated to be an increase in the number of machine-guns carried. Machine guns are held by British designers to be more effective and deadly than cannon, in which the German Luftwaffe has placed so much reliance. The older type of Wellington gives an even finer performance now that Rolls-Royce Merlin engines are fitted in place of the previous type, and the new speed is estimated to be considerably higher than the former speed of about 260 miles an hour.