NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 41, 16 August 1941, Page 10

NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

RAF. STRIKES

BLITZ ON GERMANY

BEST HELP FOR

RUSSIA

1 Air raids are so frequent and regular items in the news these days, 2 especially in the 8.8.C. series, that i their very familiarity is apt to i i breed, if not contempt, a certain r amount of indifference in the lis--1 tener and reader. Yet the R.A.F., - from Britain and the Middle East, is doing- a great job, striking at the s enemy with ever-increasing intensity. The latest raid over Germany was one of the heaviest ever det livered, more than 300 bombers i being employed over Hanover, > Brunswick, and Madgeburg, im--5 portant centres of industry and ; communication. This, coming on 1 top of the daylight raid on the Ruhr, and the double-barrelled T attacks by British and Russian machines on Berlin, must be hav--5 ing its effect. Certainly, it is the 1 best help Britain can give to Russia in the critical days of the 1 German offensive on the Eastern Front. t If the total of the losses inflicted on. . the enemy not only in Germany and L the German-occupied countries from ■ the North Cape of Norway to the Bay - of Biscay, but also on Axis territory in » and about the Mediterranean, could be > presented in one picture, it would make 1 a formidable bill of damages. To this I must be added the half-million tons of t shipping destroyed at sea since the , beginning of the German attack on i Russia in the last week of June. Prol bably in no equivalent period of GerL many's air offensive in the west and on Britain was so much damage done to Britain as the Germans have suffered lately. .And the R.A.F. is only | working up for worse blows to rain 'on Germany and Italy. The policy of ; building large, long-distance bombers " and of procuring as many as possible from America is turning 'out well. This is the testimony of Lord Beaverbrook, who, as Minister of Supply, had a hand | in the policy, and its execution. It is ; also the opinion of most experts. ; The Right Policy. j The success of the Germans in '. Greece and Crete with dive-bombers and air-borne troops led to criticism L in Britain on this very policy of going in1 for big bombers instead of following the German example of army j co-operation with swarms of dive- . bombers, parachute and other . troop I carriers, and gliders—all the paraphernalia used with such success in Crete. , It was not realised how much of that ! success was due to the unfortunate predicament of our troops in Crete without many of the necessaries of modern warfare. Such a success—and it was costly enough to the Germans as it was—is never'likely to be repeated. The conditions in Crete were unique in more ways than one and may, and should, never recur. Air Commodore R. V. Goddard, in a recent broadcast, argued that the pilot, not the machine, is the crux of air warfare. _ It' is much easier to build machines than to train i;pil6ts and other, skilled personnel of an "air, force. German air-borne divisions and other special organisations, he says, absorb a great number, probably thousands, of pilots, crews, and aircraft. In operations like that in Crete hundreds of these are lost. Would it not have paid Germany better to have put the effort into long-range bombers and crews for attacks on Britain and British .-shipping? Goddard contends that the dive-bomber as used by Germany is not as trfficient as the British bombers in attacks on ships at sea. On the other hand, Germany's main operations have been on land, and here the use of the dive-bomber and parachute and other air-borne troops is certainly, on occasion, of great value in an offensive. But what suits Germany, say in Russia and elsewhere in Europe would be of little use to Britain unless and ' until the Empire has to meet the Axis on equal terms on land. For the time being- the countering of the blitz needs a different policy from the waging of the blitz itself. The losses of the R.A.F. in their latest offensive may seem heavy, but actually they- are lighter in proportion to the number "of machines used and the damage done than in the past. The Germans have no counter. Taking a longer view on the subject of war aircraft of the future the wellknown authority, Oliver Stewart, sums J up the position:— There are the possibilities, then: a vast increase in the load-carrying capabilities of aircraft; greater use of aircraft, including gliders, for the depositing at important points of troops and supplies, both directly and by parachute; 'he development of specialised aircraft carrying a single big gun for use in making low-flying attacks on targets like tanks; and a general increase in performance, speed, range, and climb. These may come if the war lasts long enough, but most people would prefer peace. - ' , ' In the Ukraine. At the end of the eighth week of the German offensive in Russia the position, though nothing like what the Germans anticipated, is still critical tor the Russians. It looks now as if the Germans, having achieved certain progress in the north and centre, might be content, for a while, to stand on the defensive there, digging in after the Great War manner, in order to concentrate every effort on a break through in the Ukraine. The Moscow 1 announcement of the evacuation cf Pervomaisk and Kirovograd marks a distinct retirement of Marshal Budenny's army towards the great bend of the Dnieper with the dam and hydro station of Dnepropetrovsk at its most easterly point, and further west the ironore fields and works of Krivoi Rog. These are important objectives for the Germans, which the Russians will naturally try to defend. The German commander-in-chief in the Ukraine, General Rundstedt, is one of the most successful of the military leaders in the present war, having secured the collapse of France through the breakthrough at Sedan, north of the Maginot Line. Hitler himself is said to be in the field in the Ukraine. It is believed that on different occasions in the past he has intervened with some effect on the military situation.