OVER THOUSAND PLANES

Opotiki News, Volume III, Issue 318, 2 October 1940, Page 4

OVER THOUSAND PLANES

GERMAN SEPTEMBER LOSS GERMAN AIR FORCE FAILURE OF RAIDERS BRITISH DEFENCES CRITICAL MONTH (Nowj by Cable.) RUGBY, Sept. 30. During September,_ which is regarded by high officials as a critical month, the Royal Air Force destroyed over 1000 German aircraft with the loss of only 286 of its own fighters. The past month further demonstrated the inability of the enemy bombers, even with huge escorts, to overcome the defence of the Royal Air Force planes in daylight raids, and is. regarded-by experts as establishing the. ineffectiveness of night bomb.ng, owing to the fact that many of the raiding pilots. lose their way. An examination of the list of places upon which bombs were dropped in the past few nights suggests that at least half of them were dropped by pilots who were completely unaware of the localities over which they were flying—places rc.note from any objective which the Germans could claim to have any military or semi-military character.

“In these cases,” says the Daily Telegraph air correspondent, “it is obviously not a question of missing legitimate targets by half a mile or so through inaccurate bomb-laying. Either the enemy had mistaken the route assigned to him or, knowing he had lost his way, was bombing promiscuously.” Unusual Disparities Some unusual dispar.ties between one day and another in the proportion of our own loss to that of the enemy during last week’s air war is discussed by the Daily Telegraph, which states: “Whereas on Friday we destroyed 133 enemy machines at a cost of only 34 of our own, Saturday’s communique announced the loss of seven British fighters against only six of the enemy. A few days earl.or the losses on both sides were equal at 11. “ft will be regarded as further testimony to the veracity ot' the Air Ministry’s communiques that they do not hesitate to admit relatively unfavourable figures in contrast with the Nazi practice of reversing the figures on 1U days out of 20„when they are heavily adverse to themselves. There is no cause for disquiet concerning the rare occasions when the Royal Air Force fails to destroy three or four times as many enemy machines as it loses itself. The reasou for the two bad days last week was that the enemy sent over only fighters unaccompanied by bombers, hoping to lure our fighters to combat with the local numerical superiority of his own.”