PHASES OF THE WAR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26040, 2 January 1946, Page 5

PHASES OF THE WAR

SECRET CHARTS KEPT HISTORICAL RECORD LONDON, Dec. 30. By the release of a “ diagrammatic representation of certain phases of the war,” the secret charts used by the Chiefs of Staff Committee during the war have become an open historical record. The committee met continuously from the outbreak to VE-Day, and into its counsels were wheeled mobile frames containing coloured charts showing at a glance the ups and downs, the triumphs and crises of nearly six years of war. Some phases made gloomy pictures, others were thrilling, as they showed the most spectacular progress. Nearly 40 charts offer reminders of the ordeals which Britain faced and overcame. Some of the figures relating to bombing, etc., have already been published, but seem more impressive in a graph. A graph resembling a skyscraper showed the production of fighter aircraft in Britain, which, under 100 a month in September, 1939, had at the beginning of the Battle of Britain risen to/ 450 a month, while the monthly average of 1944 was approximately 900. Another showed the U-boats’ enormous toll of merchant shipping in 1942, 6,000,000 gross tons, compared with under 2,000,000 in the 'year 1939-40, and also'in the year 1941, and about 750,000 in 1944.