THE ROYAL AIR FORCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24855, 3 March 1942, Page 5

THE ROYAL AIR FORCE

PLANS FOR THIS YEAR HEAVY BLOWS AT GERMANY RUGBY. Feb. 28. Speaking at Bristol to-day, the Secretary of State lor Air, Sir Archibald Sinclair, disclosed that at the beginning of the war Germany’s air strength was four times that of the British. “When the Germans established themselves in air and sea bases less than 100 miles from London,” he said, “ the world thought the downfall of Britain was at hand, yet we managed to keep our factories working and supplies pouring intd the country. We built up and re-equipped our forces. “Then came the victorious Battle of Britain and the successful defeat of the night bomber,” Sir Archibald continued"' “With the treacherous attack on Russia, heavy demands were made on British equipment. We promised to send the Russians aircraft, and tanks and many other things, because, whatever risk we might run in" any theatre of the war, it was nothing to the perils the Russians were facing, and the sufferings they were enduring. Meanwhile. Field Marshal Rommel was preparing an attack on Egypt. Our main tasks for the winter, therefore, were to defeat, and, if possibly, destroy the German and Italian armies in Africa and fulfil .our supply .commitments, to Russia. The armies of the Commander-m-Chief in the Middle East, General Sir Claude Auchinleck, did not destroy. but defeated, the Italian and German armies. In this achievement the R.A.F., under Air Marshal A. W. Tedder, played a brilliant part. While this battle was being fought,” he added, “three events occurred which changed the whole course of the war. Helping the Russians “ First, the Russians launched thengreat winter offensive and began to roll the German armies back. Let us praise the brave Russian armies and the courage and constancy of the Russian people. They defeated the mighty German Army, but do not imagine they have destroyed it. The German Army will return desperately to the attack, so we must go on helping the Russians. We must not expect the Russians to win the war for us. It is" on ourselves we must rely. “ Secondly, Japan entered the war. With our commitments in Africa, the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, and Russia, what was left of bur resources was wholly inadequate for our defence of the Far East. Only by the entry of the United States into the war could we hope to stem the Japanese, arid it is this military co-opera-tion of the two great Anglo-Saxon countries which is the third great event.”

Returning to Germany, which, he said, was still the most formidable of our enemies. Sir Archibald Sinclair said: “ Our one force which can and will strike hard blows this year at the very heart of Germany is the R.A.F. All through the great battles in Russia the R.A.F. has kept half the German fighter squadrons facing the west. That is a greater contribution to the success of the Russian armies in their battle against Germany than the supplies we sent them. This winter we hoped to hit Germany •'hard, but our airmen were confronted by an even more formidable enemy than the Germans, and that was the weather. For weeks a thick canopy of ice-laden cloud has hung over north-western Europe and for weeks on end the fog covered our aerodromes at home. Only in one year during the last 15 has the weather been so unfavourable for night bombing. “We must take Germany by the throat and shake the strength out of her,” he declared. “We must start not in 1944 or 1943, but in 1942. The United Nations have two instruments at their disposal for hammering Germany in 1942—the Red Army and the Royal Air Force.”