A BACKGROUND OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 295, 10 September 1941, Page 6

A BACKGROUND OF THE WAR

Great Air Offensive GROWING WEIGHT ‘ The great R.A.F. raid on Berlin on Sunday night recalls the ominous words of Mr. Churchill in his broadcast on June 22, the day on which Hitler’s armies attacked and invaded Russia. “We shall bomb Germany by day as well as by night ;in ever-increasing measure, -casting upon them month by month a heavier discharge of bombs and making the German people taste and gulp each month a sharper dose of the miseries that they have showered upon mankind.” That sombre forecast has been amply fulfilled during the last eleven weeks, the only breaks in the night bomber offensive being due to bad weather. Large Scale Attacks

Some idea of the scale of the nonstop British air offensive over Germany may be gained from the fact that between June 16 and July 10 more than 2000 tons of bombs were dropped in the small area of the Ruhr industrial centres alone. Nearly 1000 tons of bombs fell on Cologne and more than 500 tons on Bremen. These figures are additional to very great weights of bombs dropped during the same period on Kiel, Hamburg and other important Seaports and cities in north-west Germany. The major strength of the Luftwaffe has been engaged in the fierce struggle on the eastern front, where its ’ resources are being well tried by the power of the Russian resistance. The Soviet Air Force has kept the Luftwaffe fully occupied in many departments. The good showing of Russia’s air forces during the last 11 weeks proves that the Germans have not gained mastery in the air. Apart from its almost nightly attacks on German industrial cities, the Royal Air Force for weeks has been carrying out powerful sweeps over northern France and has made a number of daylight bombing attacks on enemy-occupied territory. On July 5 heavy four-motor bombers of the R.A.F. made their first daylight attack escorted by fighters. Their target was a large iron and steel works at Lille in northern France, and not a bomber was lost. Previously day bombing raids with fighter escorts had been carried out by medium bombers of the Bristol Blenheim type. These raids first began on January 10 and were gradually intensified. R.A.F. Casualties The R.A.F. daylight bombing raids owe a great deal to the excellent protection given by the escort fighters, whose ability to defeat the enemy fighters and preserve their charges from serious harm is in marked contrast' to the Luftwaffe’s failure to safeguard German bombers in the Battle of Britain a year ago. . As is only to be expected, losses of British bombers have increased during the last three months. In the first week of July, 36 were lost at night and 15 in daylight operations. It is reported, that-in Sunday night’s big attack on Berlin 20 bombers were lost, but in view of the very large number of machines engaged, the casualties cannot be accounted' as heavy. One rule that the Air Ministry does not break is that the number of aircraft engaged in any sorties must not be mentioned. The cable messages give reports indicating that as many as 400 bombers went over Germany on Sunday night, andi of this number the loss of 20 is a moderate one.

The 73rd casualty list issued by the Air Ministry on July 2 contained 494 names, including 123 previously reported, This list brought the. total of R.A.F. casualties reported, since the beginning of the war up to 12,490 in killed, wounded, prisoners of war, missing, etc. In the light of the moderately heavy casualties over Germany, the losses of the R.A.F. in the Mediterranean area, despite the continuous operations carried out, appear almost ridiculously small.

In The Mediterranean While the R.A.F. is carrying on its major offensive over Germany and enemy-occupied territory in Western Europe, aircraft of the Middle East command, and the Fleet Air Arm are waging unceasing warfare in the Mediterranean. The main weight of their attacks is directed against the enemy’s supply bases in North Africa and Sicily, and his lines of communication by sea. Supply ships and troop transports are being attacked by bomb and torpedo in their ports of assembly, as well as at sear, and those that succeed in running the gauntlet are dealt with in Tripoli, Benghazi and other ports of discharge. In recent weeks a number of large, fast Italian liners, including the Duilio, of 23,635 tons, and several of 18,000 to 20,000 tons, have been torpedoed by aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm while on passage to North Africa. Working in co-operation with the aircraft, British submarines are also taking heavy toll of enemy shipping, their latest success being the torpedoing of an Italian tanker in the Aegean Sea on passage to or from the Black Sea. The fact that Italy is risking (and losing) so many of her large liners indicates the urgency of the supply problem ‘ for the enemy forces in North Africa. Either Italy is so desperately short of medium-sized ships that she is being compelled to use her large liners?, or she is crowding large numbers or troops and 'big cargoes of supplies into these fast ships in the hope of rushing them across with greater success than has obtained with the smaller vessels. In any case, the enemy’s losses ot valuable ships and men and sorely-need-ed supplies are on an ever-ascending scale. From the 'beginning of the war to August 16, the enemy has lost a total of 4,700,000 tons of merchant shipping of which 2,321,000 tons was German and 1,533,000 tons Italian. Including recent losses, this total probably now exceeds 5,000,000 tons. U-Boat Surrenders

Closely following the First Sea Lord’s announcement that a British destroyer had sunk two German Üboats in one night, comes the official statement that a German submarine has surrendered to a British bomber. The U-boat was attacked in the Atlantic by an aircraft of the Coastal Command and forced to surface.in a damaged condition. It was then shepherded by a flying-boat till a warship arrived and took it in tow to a British port. . t This is the first reported instance in this war of the surrender and capture of a German U-boat. There was the case of the Italian submarine Galheo Galilei of 880 tons, which on June 19 last year surrendered in an undamaged state to H.M. armed trawler Moonstone in the Red Sea and was taken into Aden. The significance oi the surrender of the German U-boat may lie in loss of morale due to the ceaseless hunting of enemy submarines and their increasing losses in the Atlantic. Otherwise, it is surprising that the Germans did not scuttle their ship. —(S.D.W.).