GROWING POWER OF R.A.F.

Southland Times, Issue 24439, 20 May 1941, Page 3

GROWING POWER OF R.A.F.

Effect Of New Types

SYDNEY, May 6. The most heartening statement in Mr Churchill’s broadcast survey last Sunday of a patently unpromising war situation was his declaration that with the help of the United States Britain would soon attain decisive superiority in the air, states the military correspondent of The Sydney Morning Herald. The Prime Minister did not indicate the grounds for this forecast, but he is not given to rash over-statement and his prediction cannot be dismissed as rhetoric. On the other hand, it would be equally unwise to put too literal an interpretation upon it. American production is steadily increasing, it is true, but anticipations are now far more realistic than they were in the blueprint stage of the programme, and instead of the tens of thousands of planes of which enthusiastic visionaries spoke last year it is now assumed that the American production will reach about 1800 a month by the end of the year. At the same time the earlier tendency to interpret the future only in the light of our own increased production has now gone. We can no longer afford to under-estimate Germany’s strength or to assume that she has reached the point at which her production will begin to decline, for she has the manufacturing resources of practically the entire Continent at her disposal. ENCOURAGING SIGNS

Nevertheless, even if comparisons and anticipations are kept on this severely realistic level there exist certain factors which show that our aerial position is steadily improving, both actually and relatively. One indication of this is negative, but important. Apart from particularly vicious air raids on London and Plymouth just after the beginning of the Greek campaign there has been no sustained heavy offensive against Britain, although one might have expected Germany to have exploited the psychological effect of her victories in Greece by meting out devastating aerial blows to Britain in an attempt to lower British morale in a time of stress.

One explanation of this is that the crushing aerial superiority which Gerj many obtained in the Balkans, and which was undoubtedly the most important contributory factor to her success, was made possible only by diverting considerable aerial strength from western Europe to the Balkan peninsula. Even more important, from a longrange point of view, is the fact that Germany has not attempted large-scale daylight raids on Britain, although the Royal Air Force has embarked on a steadily growing policy of daylight attacks on the Continent. After the “sweeps” of northern France a few weeks ago the Royal Air Force launched an important series of daytime raids on April 24. Up to this time Britain had been chary about daylight attacks because the bomber forces were not sufficiently strong and it was thought that such raids should be postponed until more and faster day bombers had been acquired. The raid of last Thursday was an experiment to ascertain what could be accomplished bytaking advantage of cloud cover, and so great was the success that two days later an important establishment near Cologne was bombed by daylight and on Monday of this week one of the heavy new Stirling bombers attacked the strongly fortified centre of Emden. AGGRESSIVE POWER

Continuing the series, a lengthy “sweep” over Flanders occurred on Tuesday; and it is now believed that, in the near future, the R.A.F. will be able to attack regularly by day as by night. If this should be so, a new stage in the aerial war will definitely be reached, and a most striking proof of the new aggressive power of the Royal Air Force will be given to the world. At the very least it is anticipated that the Germans will retaliate in kind, and thus give the Fighter Command the chance for which they express themselves fully prepared. Simultaneously, the weight of British raids is markedly increasing. The raid on Berlin on April 17 was officially described as the heaviest of the entire war; and this was ascribed as much to new types of bombs as to the extra bomb-load carried by the big bombers. These new explosives increase the already prodigious striking power of the new Stirlings and Manchester's, and of the Consolidated Liberators and the new Boeing Flying Fortresses which are now arriving from America.

To complete the picture, one must mention that Germany now has in service new types of heavy Heinkels, and especially the much-advertised FockeWulf bombers; so that the gains are not all on one side. Despite this reciprocal advance, Britain is now approaching the stage when she can definitely adopt tactics of a more aggressive nature. Lord Beaverbrook specifically stated a few weeks ago that now, for the first time, the question of reserves is no longer such as unduly to limit British bombing plans.

NIGHT-BOMBING MENACE The greatest problem is still the German night-bomber, and it must be frankly recognized that no real answer to this menace has yet been found. It is true that increasing numbers of German bombers are being brought down at night, and the night-fighters are taking an increasing toll whenever there is strong moonlight. In addition, anti-aircraft fire has shown a decided increase in effectiveness in recent weeks, and there is every reason to believe that the amount of ammunition'exploded for every plane brought down has greatly decreased. A semiofficial explanation attributes this in part to new control instruments and “other devices.”

Finally, much is expected from the new types of fighters, especially the Tornado, the Typhoon, the Whirlwind and the Bristol Beau. Some details were given last week of the Typhoon, which is now in full production. This is a single-seater fighter with a speed of well over 400 miles an hour, and with a climbing rate held to be greater than that of any other plane. Supplementing these gains are the recent tests of the Airacobra, which showed that American research is countering the German “bid for the stratosphere,” for the Airacobra functioned and its guns worked at abnormally high levels. The net result of these advances is that with the single exception of checking night bombing, the aerial position is rapidly becoming healthier, and the revealed facts, which may be safely taken as only a tithe of the whole, justify Mr Churchill’s confidence that qualitative superiority will, in time, be accompanied by supremacy in all aspects of the aerial war.