A RENDEZ-VOUS OVER BERLIN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 10 September 1941, Page 4

A RENDEZ-VOUS OVER BERLIN

; ON the anniversary of the first Ger-' : man blitz over London the R.A.F. j ' replied by treating Berlin to the big-, gest raid in its history. Over 300; j heavy bombers dropped more than ! 300 tons of bombs on the German i capital. This is probably far more ; machines than the Germans have j | generally sent in their largest scale! , attacks on Britain, the last big one ! taking place as long ago as May. Alj together on Sunday night it is esti- ) mated that 400 British planes were; j over Germany. Twenty bombers i were lost. On Monday two Flying I | Fortresses went missing in a large- j 'scale reconnaissance flight during l l which shipping was attacked. Bomber casualties for one night’s! operations may seem high. Loss of twenty well-trained crews and their j machines is regrettable but, considering the strength of the attacking formation, the losses are not high, i For some time now we have been losing more planes on most days than i the enemy, both bombers and fight- j ers. This is because in the air we are now constantly on the offensive. I The position of a year ago has been) reversed but the scale of losses has j not. In August and September ofj last year, when the Luftwaffe tried persistently to win the first stage of the Battle of Britain by breaking through the air defences, the R.A.F. inflicted far severer punishment on the Germans than they have so far been able to do to the R.A.F. On one memorable day in September a i hundred and thirty-five German j planes were shut down. Up till now nothing like this has happened to our air forces over Germany. The mounting scale of raids is going to continue so we must become accustomed to hear of daily losses of twenty planes—and more. Leaving out the personal aspect, and considering the losses as battle casualties, they represent an economical method of fighting a war. As on the ground, so in the air: the attacker is the greatest loser. Many of the German cities and industrial towns have elaborate antiaircraft and fighter defences but this has not stopped the R.A.F. from raid- i ing those targets it has selected. Two I Berlin raids on two successive nights! is a reminder that the hours of dark-! ness are drawing out over Europe. | Germany is getting what she has! been promised. This will continue j in rising measure till victory comes.! The Russian Air Force has also had | two turns at raiding the German capi- | tal in the last week, so the Germans will know that their enemies in east and west have been able to keep their appointment for a “rendez-vous over Berlin.”