DOMINION AIRMEN.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 212, 6 August 1940, Page 6

DOMINION AIRMEN.

The awards for bravery made to New Zealand airmen emphasise the excellent part being played by the young men from this country who have become part of the ltoyal Air Force. Already there are more than 700 New Zealand pilots in this remarkably efficient and daring arm of Britain’s fighting services, aud some of them form a separate unit. This, however, is only the vanguard of this country’s force for' service in this branch in England. We have a contract with the British Government to provide 3680 pilots, observers, gunners, and mechanics annually for overseas, and the Air Department’s report shows that the training of these men, carried out in conjunction with the great Empire scheme in Canada, will be in full operation by January next. New Zealand will train fully 880 pilots and 800 mechanics annually; at the same time 520 more pilots, 546 observers, and 936 gunners will be partly instructed here and ‘complete their advanced training in Canada. Eleven, flying schools and training depots will be in operation by the New Year to enable this maximum effort to be reached. The great contracts for aeroplanes placed in the United States,’the rapid and enhanced output in Britain, Canada, and Australia, as well as the elevation of Lord Beaverbrook, (Minister. for Aircraft Production) to the War Cabinet emphasise the vast importance of the air arm. Extensive as the raids have been in Germany in the past two months, and tremendous the hammering of war objectives, the British High Command has still greater plans of attack in this respect; and with the increased output and larger purchases of aeroplanes and the arrival in England of thousands of young men from the Dominions, Colonies, and the training camps in Canada; this will be quickly achieved. For the present Germany has superiority in the air so far as planes and personnel are concerned ; in daring and initiative Britain is not surpassed.