BRITAIN WINNING THE AIR WAR

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 39, 14 August 1940, Page 8

BRITAIN WINNING THE AIR WAR

The war in the air continues in a crescendo of fury. Enemy attacks on the southern areas of England began again yesterday at dawn and lasted till the evening. The fighting was on much the same scale as the previous day, when it was estimated that some 500 enemy aircraft were in action over Portsmouth, the Channel, and the Thames Estuary, and the enemy lost 61 of their machines to our thirteen. Yesterday the enemy's losses were 69 and ours 11. At this rate, which has been fairly constant throughout the week's air battles, the Nazis will soon lose the numerical superiority in the air which has helped them so much in their land campaigns in Europe. On the other hand, the British air forces of the various commands have i

been carrying on with even greater vigour than ever their raids on military objectives in Germany and German-occupied territory, raids which have lasted longer and proved far more effective, with minor losses, than the Nazi operations over British waters and adjacent counties. There is not the least doubt that serious damage has been done by these British raids to all branches of the German military machine from munition factories, including aircraft, through the wide range of fuel dumps, canal, and rail communications to troop concentrations, aerodromes, seaports, and dockyards. It would not be too much to say that the havoc so wrought by the R.A.F. has been one of the most important factors in forcing the Germans to desperate air ventures over Britain in the hope of achieving some decisive success before their own air arm is crippled at its base. Have the enemy achieved any sort of success by their raids that would compensate them for the losses they have suffered? The Nazi claims are wide enough, but there is nothing to show that there is any basis of truth in them any more than there is in their statements of comparative losses. The instance of Bristol given in today's news tells its own story. Since June 20 the German wireless has claimed that numerous raids on Bristol have inflicted heavy damage on docks, aircraft factories, oil storage plants, and railway station. A Press party on Monday, states the message, was permitted to examine exhaustively the scenes of these claims, as a result of which they were able to say that the damage was very light, except to a railway signal box, some railway trucks, a school yard, and several nouses. The Avonmouth | docks are exceedingly busy. Similar Nazi claims of holding up shipping at the port of London were similarly disproved a day or two ago. What damage has been done by the raids on Britain seems to have fallen largely on private houses, schools, churches, and hospitals, and other non-military objects, though there is no reason to believe that these have been deliberately chosen as targets. On this point the "Manchester Guardian" observes that the Germans apparently "regard their night bombing as insufficiently accurate to give any useful military results." Are the raids a prelude to an attempt at invasion? Expert opinion, cited by the "Daily Mail," is against this view, and holds rather that Germany hopes to gain great propaganda value from the raids, as the German wireless is "ceaselessly broadcasting fictitious versions of the operations." What the raids have proved so far is that Britain's air defences, including the much-debated balloon barrage, are standing up successfully to a real test, while our vigorous air offensive continues to take toll of the enemy's power to attack.