GERMAN ANGER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23882, 9 August 1939, Page 12

GERMAN ANGER

BRITISH FLIGHT OVER FRANCE "THREAT AGAINST THE AXIS" STRATEGICAL LESSONS The long-distance training flight of more than 100 British bombers over France (German correspondents give the number of machines as 200) has caused more annoyance in the Reich than any English action—as distinct from speech—in recent months, reported the Berlin correspondent of The Times on July 12. The action of the Royal Air Force and of the French Army of the Air in allowing such flights is described as a " bald threat against the Axis Powers," and it is announced that the "English encirclers " now plan further flights over the Baltic to Poland.

The chief cause of German anger is the fact that French and English newspapers have not been slow to apply the lessons of the flight to air strategy in the event of a war. Thus the announcement by an English newspaper that Danzig, Prague, Vienna, and Rome would be accessible to British bombers from French landing-grounds, and that Berlin, Stettin, Leipzig, Salzburg, Innsbruck, and Milan are within bombing radius from England calls forth the retort here that apparently the German air force has been forgotten in England, and the assertion that German bombers would be flying over LondonLiverpool, Gibraltar, or Malta even sooner than the British machines over Germany. The account given in the British press of the performance of the medium and heavy bombers which took part in the flight, is described as "greatly exaggerated," and, indeed, the whole trend of British comment is attacked as "shameless and nonsensical."

In responsible quarters gratitude Is, however, expressed to French and English newspapers for having made clear the true purpose of the flight Pointing the Moral

The Nachtausgabe, commenting on the affair, says: From the military point of view neither the quarters which have been entrusted by Chamberlain and the Foreign Office with the task of carrying on political agitation against Germany, nor responsible officers of the English Air Force can surprise anyone on the Continent with their bombing flights. Naturally every country in Europe is sufficiently informed about the real strength ibf the English Air Force. (On this subject Der Adler, a popular aeronautical magazine published with the co-operation of the German Air Ministry, reported the British first-line air strength as 1750 machines.)

A purely factual consideration of these warmongering flights (continues the Nachtausgabe) will lead the English people to the conclusion that in the event of war anti-aircraft defence is also important, and that the Continental nations are even more experienced in this respect than England, although in certain circumstances England is more easily reached by bombers from the Continent than the Continent from England. The Lokal Anzeifier issued a solemn warning against the "irresponsible game with European peace" which Great Britain is playing in making such flights. Should British bombers try to attack German towns, the writer adds, not a single one would succeed in its purpose, so good are the German defences. Germany, therefore, has no need to make military demonstrations of the kind which are now being made by England. _ . Finally, the influential Boersen-Zei-tung threatens terrible reprisals by the "best, strongest, most modern, and hardest-hitting air force in the world should attacks be made on German cities in the event of war. German fighters and bombers, claims the writer, are far superior to their French and British counterparts.