RAIDS ON GERMANY

Grey River Argus, 30 October 1942, Page 3

RAIDS ON GERMANY

Air Minister’s Review

RUGBY. Oct., 27,

The Air Minister (Sir A. Sinclair), to-day described the Bomber Command of the R. A. F. as the javelin which Britain had added to the sword and trident in her armoury. He said the continually improving methods of search combined with hard flying in all weathers, had shown a striking increase in the number of U-boats sighted and attacked, thus aiding the Navy,... to draw the blockade tighter round Germany, and bring her own supplies from overseas. Our successes had forced the enemy to send long range fighters into the Bay of Biscay, where the Coastal Command was hurting him, the most, but this availed the Germans nothing. Last month 12 enemy aircraft were destroyed in the Bay of Biscay, and a new high record for attacks on Üboats was reached, 45 per cent, above the best of any previous month. The Minister said it was eighteen months since Hitler had attacked Britain in force by night, and. another sustained ’ blitz on the 1940-41 scale was unlikely. The Germans. would meet with a very hot reception if they came over in force. Nevertheless, it must be remembered that their machines. bombs and technique have improved as ours had done, and there must be no complacency. Our pipparations for Winter nights were conA F.’s own bombing policy this year has heen dominated by two themes- helping the Navy in the Battle for the Atlantic, and Russia. The Russians well knew the value of our bomber policy, w hlcn along with our Fighter sweeps had forced the Germans to bring to the Western Front nearly as many fighters as they had on the whole Front. The Soviet economist. Varga, recently drew attention to the transport difficulties hampering the German offensives at Stalingrad and Mozdok, and paid a tribute to th R. A. F. for aggravating those difficui ties by attacks on the German transport system in the West. It was not surprising. sald (h Sinclair, that the weight olour‘bom ber offensive was already fe t < afield as Stallingrad and Mozdolc 2 spite of all diversions we had been ob I liged to make. Its weight was growing I and would grow faster still , , I In the first 14 doys of Septemberwe dropped 5,000 tons of bombs m nine raids. The Germans themselves had given up trying to copce al Luftwaffe age. An officer of the Luitwane. broadcasting' from Berlin , said - „ damage the enemy is_doin£ in - many cannot be denied. It is - ordinary and extremely great. Wt must admit this fact.” The Minister pointed out however that in considering the acl ?’ G )/ e ™/ n b / of the Bomber Command, it must ne remembered its force was yet so nmi - ed in size that only by an exceptiona feat of organisation, which cou c rarely be repeated, could a thousand bombers be put into the air at once. It was not true that the Government held out the early prospect ot ii - quent four-figure raids. Most tnat ' had been said was that in a few i months they would become less infrequent. That was true, but we have not unlimited numbers of bombers. We want more The sooner we get them, the sooner Hitler will be defeated. i

I Sir A. Sinclair pointed out that the Americans, too, were now joining in. | They had much to learn and much to teach. Their bombing had been astonishingly accurate.. They would bring a mighty shattering reinforcement to our bombing offensive against Germany,