Evening Post. MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 1940. NEW PHASE OF AIR WAR

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 49, 26 August 1940, Page 6

Evening Post. MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 1940. NEW PHASE OF AIR WAR

The war still continues to be mainly a war in the air. Land operations on the Continent of Europe have been and are at a standstill since the collapse and capitulation of France. In the only other theatre, Africa, they are still on a minor scale, brushes between patrols for the most part, and even here air warfare takes precedence. Britain's command of the sea is not actively disputed, but the fact that the Italian navy is still in being, even if sheltering in its own ports, is a hindrance to free navigation of the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. It is in this' theatre of war that the defection of the Vichy Government has reacted to the detriment of the original plans for concerted Franco-British, strategy, covering the whole of the Near East. Many elements of uncertainty in the whole situation in this quarter may be resolved by events in the near future, of which the strained relations between Italy' and Greece on the Albanian frontier and the stiffening of the Rumanian attitude towards Hungary, after the amicable settlement of the Dobruja question with Bulgaria, offer some inkling.

In the meantime the Germans have renewed their air attack on Britain, after a comparatively calm interlude, with a variation in methods. Sporadic and isolated raids on various parts of Britain carried out hy bombers, singly or in small groups, have been followed by massed attacks at the weekend on London and more important military objectives like Portsmouth, Ramsgate, and Dover. These big mass raids began on Saturday afternoon, with the employment of numbers of bombers esti- ; mated at 300 over London, and 500 over Portsmouth. Shortly before midnight a bomb from a raider caused a fire in the business area of London. It is suggested that the Russian type of incendiary bomb, known as the "Molotov bread-basket," may have been used. Details announced seem to indicate that in this new phase of air operations the enemy has ceased to pretend that military objectives are the only targets. This is confirmed by reports of the machine-gunning of civilians in streets and a survey of an independent American observer who comes to the conclusion that German bombing has bepome indiscriminate. The idea, frankly expressed by the Nazi radio, is by this form of terrorism, like the bombing of refugees in Belgium and France, to produce panic in the civilian population ot Britain. All the evidence is that these Nazi methods have failed, and are likely to fail, in producing the desired

effect. Discussing the enemy's air tactics, "The Times" suggests that the Battle of Britain has entered a new phase. The first phase was the heavy air offensive, mainly against London, lasting about a week and failing to achieve any military results commensurate with Germany's loss of over seven hundred planes and some two thousand trained air personnel. "The Times" well says.: It may well be that this series of battles will long be remembered in the story of warfare as the first instance of an offensive on a great scale carried out entirely by an air arm in circumstances as favourable as it can usually hope to find, and routed with great loss. The second phase may be more trying! even than the first in the continuous character of the raids and their wide range as well as local intensity, as in the London area. But it is not likely to shake the high morale of the British people. Of further possibilities "The Times" adds: We know that instead of, or simultaneously with, a further offensive against this island, a strong campaign may be launched in the Mediterranean , against our fleet in those waters, our forces in the Middle East Command, and the Suez Canal. Whatever may come will be met in the same spirit.

Into the further phases—the critical third, the easier fourth, and the fifth, possibly the first counteroffensive—included in this forward glance into the future that none can safely predict there is no need Lo enter here. In war it is the spirit to endure with fortitude, to fight on and fight back with faith and hope and a determination never to admit defeat. or the possibility of defeat, that

counts above all things. If the German air attacks on Britain have caused, in the words of "The Times," "a not inconsiderable loss of life and destruction of property and some military damage also, though nothing serious," the attacks of the Royal Air Force on Germany and Germanoccupied territory have inflicted infinitely more havoc on genuinely military objectives with far smaller loss of machines and men, and, what is more, the Air Force of the British Empire, supplemented by voluntary contributions from every part, can keep it up in a rising ratio. The command of the air is steadily and surely swinging to the British Empire, and when that position is achieved a new phase of the war will begin indeed.