NAZI PLANE SHORTAGE

Evening Star, Issue 24007, 4 October 1941, Page 10

NAZI PLANE SHORTAGE

RAF. GAINING SUPERIORITY LUFTWAFFE STILL A FORMIDABLE FOE (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, October 2. In a leading article headed “ Towards Air Mastery,'’ ‘ The Times ’ analyses Mr Churchill’s recent statement in the House of Commons, in which he said: “ The enemy’s only shortage is in the air.” This, 1 ‘ The Times’ states, conveyed sober • encouragement to the nation, and it adds that this shortage is because the Luftwaffe is not strong enough to undertake the offensive on the Russian front as well as an attack on Britain on a scale equal to that launched last September. ‘ The Times ’ points out that should a concentration be directed exclusively against Britain again, Germany still has a vast fighting force and sufficient reserves to deliver an assault at least as heavy as anything yet experienced. The mounting figures of British and American production, however, should guarantee that the relative strength changes continuously and adversely to Germany. With regard to British production, which ‘ The Times 1 states surpassed all previous records in the month of September, first claim on the increasing supply falls to Russia, a necessity which postpones a great expansion in the home-based air force. ‘ The Times ’ continues; “ With every prospect of increasing activity in Africa and the possibility of the opening up of new fronts, no expansion of our resources in the air can be too great—not even the immense reinforcement that, as Mr Malcolm MacDonald told us on Tuesday, is now' pouring into Britain from Canada. The Empire air training scheme in the dominion has grown far beyond the original plan, and is already months ahead of schedule. The High Commissioner described the output of trained airmen, which will

reach .the maximum next year, as already “ terrific,” while at the same time the Air Minister in the dominion was announcing the intention of doubling the number of schools and aerodromes at present in existence._ It is;in this matter of supply of trained men—and iri the quality of that supply, for the R.A.F. has already insisted on really thorough training—that wo have the best prospect of establishing decisive superiority over the Luftwaffe.” OUTRAGES IN PARIS SIX SYNAGOGUES DYNAMITED (Rec. 11.55 a.m.) VICHY, Oct. 3. Anti-Jewish terrorists dynamited six synagogues in Paris during the night. An attempt was made to blow up a seventh, but the bomb was found and removed. Two people were injured.