IS BOMBING INEFFECTUAL?

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 28 April 1942, Page 2

IS BOMBING INEFFECTUAL?

Mr Ley points out that the present death rate in Great Britain, after repeated assaults by the strongest air fleet ever known, is lower than it was before the outbreak of war, not because bombing is ineffectual, but because one of these unpredictable factors entered in : the forced decline in the volume of street traffic brought about a marked decline in the number of traffic accidents. and people learned to take better care of themselves in any of a dozen other ways. Moreover, active or passive counter-measures were soon developed to meet every possible form of attack, and they are now skilfully organised and cunningly planned. But might not some new explosive or secret gas upset all such plans? Mr Ley doubt- that any new explosive so much as exists in a laboratory, let alone in practicable quantities; as for secret gases, he doubts that even the old familial phosgene and mustard will be used in this war. They may eventually be tried out again in operations on the ground, tie admit', although they were never particularly successful there, but to spray them efficiently from a plane is simply impossible, and oilots are unlikely to bother with gasfilled bomb.-, since, weight for weight, these do but a traction of the damage done by incendiaries or bombs packed with TNT.—("New York Times" review of Willy Leys "Bombs and Bombing', iust nublishedt