AERIAL WARFARE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23661, 21 May 1940, Page 4

AERIAL WARFARE

FLYING SEARCHLIGHTS ■ ■' GERMAN EXPERIMENT DOUBT CAST ON VALUE* [from OUB OWN correspondent] LONDON, April 30 British pilots visiting Germany have commented on the contribution to the decorative scheme of the enemy's air defences afforded by coloured searchlights. One theory is that orange or violet light penetrates clouds arid mist more easily. Another, that it enables anti-aircraft gunners to identify friend and foe by painting their own aircraft in "sympathetic" colours. Now there is a suggestion that the German Air Force has been experimenting in a new direction—fitting searchlights into aircraft. The idea is that the crews of night bombers could thus see their objectives from the air in spite of a rigid black-out. Alternatively, with searchlights fitted to fighter aircraft, defending pilots would be able to pick up hostile bombers even though they were not detected and held by the ground defences. The idea of showing a powerful light from an aircraft in action is in opposi. tion to accepted tactics of air fighting. A first principle, applicable to fighter and bomber aircraft alike, is to remain unseen by the enemy as far' as possible. The orthodox method of illuminating a target from the air is by dropping parachute flares, while fighter pilots engaging raiding ibombers by night can rely on the co-ordinated searchlight defences to light-up their quarry. German" ground searchlights hare frequently been "doused" as a result of the fire of raiding British bombers, aiming their -guns down the beam of light. And no German pilot is Jikely to relish advertising his exact location by shining a tell-tale searchlight in the presence of enemies, whether hidden in the darkness ai-ound him or on the ground below.