NAZI SHORTAGE IN AIR

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 7, 3 October 1941, Page 7

NAZI SHORTAGE IN AIR

Demands On Luftwaffe (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, October 1. One of the statements in Mr. Churchill's speech yesterday which caused great interest was his reference to Germany’s shortage in the air: “The enemy’s only shortage is in the air; that is a very serious shortage.” The position of Germany’s air resources is further outlined by a competent commentator in London. He pointed out that the Luftwaffe was now extended to its utmost limits and, indeed, beyond these limits. Hitler required to maintain his air force from the north of Norway to Bordeaux, in Sicily, Crete and North Africa, and, above all, on the Russian front. On the last-named front his losses had undoubtedly been very heavy. There was no doubt that Hitler urgently needed more aircraft on all these fronts. If, for instance, he were going either to launch, or defend himself from, an offensive in North Africa this winter, he would have liked to make the heaviest possible raids against Tobruk, Mersa Matruh, and the other British-held ports. He would have liked, by the use of an, overwhelming number of bombers, to deny the Mediterranean to British ships. At the same time he would like to have built up a very large striking force in Libya during the past months, and to have protected by air the transport of his supplies. None of these things had he been able to do, owing to his shortage of aircraft. The most striking proof of such a shortage, perhaps, was the fact that night after night Britain had been free from enemy raids. No less significant was the urgent endeavour of the Nazi propagandists to persuade their people that the German offensive against Britain was being maintained. It had become clear that the quaUty of the crews which the Luftwaffe was now employing had greatly deteriorated. Hitler was compelled to use crews who had not completed their training—crews who would never have been employed, for instance, in the Battle for Britain.