AIR BOASTS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 230, 27 August 1940, Page 8

AIR BOASTS.

NAZIS DELUDING PEOPLE. TRUTH INEVITABLE. LONDON, Aug. 12. A alow and- bitter awakening to the superiority of British air fight.ers awaits the German people, who may have been heartened yesterday by the German radio’s empty boast that “new relays of jdanes were being sent out to maintain Germany’s command of the English Channel.” German listeners are unaware of the distorted ratio of British to German losses, but if the enemy raiders continue to suffer air casualties in the proportion of roughly three to one, as on Thursday and yesterday, the effect on the German airmen’s morale will be such that-the truth will inevitably percolate to the masses. Observers point out that the Germans undertake daylight raids when aiming at a definite objective, and presumably do not regard night bombing as being sufficiently accurate to obtain results of military value. . This contrasts with the view of the British Boml>er Command, which continues to carry out severe raids on German territory at night, relying on the skill and experience of its pilots and bomb-aimers and also the excellence of the British bomb-sight. The British pilot’s experience at night is that the only serious defence with which they have to cope is antiaircraft gunfire, which is not very effective unless searchlights catch and hold our machines. German fighters recently have been appearing over England more frequently at night than in the earlier months of the war, hut their machines are difficult to land at night, and the pilots show, little enthusiasm lor these raids. POOR RESULTS. It is understandable that the Germans should seek to damage British ports and harbours, but it is not obvious why they attacked the town of Weymouth yesterday. Although Goebhels is doubtless telling his people that three-quarters of the British Navy have been sunk, the German High Command must bo grievously disappointed by the profit and loss account of that raid, and the negligible results of an attack on an east coast harbour, where only one barrage balloon was destroyed. Reports indicate that the Germans are firing cannon against the balloons, which is rather like using a 12-bore gun to kill a butterfly. Incendiary bullets would be sufficient to cause an explosion of the hydrogen filling the balloons.