COMING BATTLES

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 62, Issue 4428, 21 May 1941, Page 6

COMING BATTLES

THE PLANES OF BRITAIN. AERIAL ACTIVITY. Whatever course the land campaigns may take during the coming months, it is certain that this summer’s air operations will be on a vastly greater scale than has ever been known. The coming air battles in Europe will depend on quality of aircraft as well as, and even more than, on quantity. The lesson that the Royal Air Force learned between 1914 and 1918 has come to its full fruition in this war. That lesson was that quality must be aimed at before all else. It is certain that the Germans have learned the lesson, too, and have taken measures to improve some of their existing types as well as to produce new and better models. But it is as doubtful that they can produce anything to approach the quality of British planes as it is now certain that they will soon be overtaken in quantity. U.S. PRODUCTION. Apart from the vast and everincreasing numbers of aircraft of the highest quality being produced in Britain, of which Lord Beaverbrook recently gave indications, the United States aircraft industry is surely becoming one of the most important factors in the “arsenal of democracy.” Given time to expand plant, organize supplies and train additional craftsmen, there is no doubt that the United States could produce planes in so great a volume that the rest of the world “would have to move at the double to keep within hailing distance.” In January the United States industry turned out 1036 planes of all types and for February the figure was 1130. If that seems little in a programme calling for 50,000 planes, it should be remembered that in 1938 the output of all American plants was only 100 military planes a month. The present programme calls for an output of 37,000 planes by the middle of next year. The Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce of U.S.A, estimates that output for 1941 will be about 18,000 units, but that by the end of the year production will be at the annual rate of from 21,000 to 24,000 and six months later at 30,000. Whatever the number it is certain that American aircraft this year will be an important factor in building up the strength of Britain’s growing air fleets to a point that will ensure her numerical superiority to the Luftwaffe. NEW NAZI BOMBER. Germany, never erring on the side of modesty as regards her achievements in the air, makes large claims for her latest four-engined heavy bomber, the Focke-Wulf Kurier, which is now in operation against British merchant shipping in the Atlantic and elsewhere. The Kurier is a development of the Focke-Wulf Condor, which in' pre-war days made a record flight from New York to Tokio. The military version of the Condor has been used occasionally in daylight raids on Britain, but always with a strong fighter escort, as its size makes it a good target for Spitfires and Hurricanes. A high speed is claimed for the Kurier. It carries a crew of six; its armament comprises several cannon as well as machine-guns, and, according tp the German claim, it can carry an “enormous bomb load over long distances.” The Kurier is said to be equipped with a de-icing device, enabling it to operate in any weather, but the perfection of the device is open to doubt. COASTAL COMMAND. To enable it to play an even greater part in British offensive operations in the Atlantic and along the shores of enemy - occupied countries, the strength of the R.A.F. Coastal Command is being rapidly built up. New squadrons have been formed and obsolete aircraft are steadily being replaced by new types, including the best American flying-boats. The Coastal Command’s work is probably more varied than that of any other in the world certainly in the R.A.F. It guards convoys, makes longrange reconnaissances over land and sea, carries out regular anti-subma-rine and anti-invasion patrols and sweeps, does a certain amount of fighting, has taken a big share in the short-range bombing attacks, sometimes with Bomber Command or the Fleet Air Arm, “plants” mines in enemy waters, harbours, • estuaries, and even canals, and does torp.edoattacking. The technique of attack with torpedoes has been developed considerably in recent months, and one of the Coastal Command’s chiefs stated recently that in two or three months at least 50,000 tons of enemy shipping had been sunk by this means. From the same source it is learnt that from the outbreak of war up to the middle of January nearly 5000 convoys had been guarded, entailing almost 17,000 separate aircraft

sorties. In the last few months the average monthly time devoted by the Coastal Command to convoy work has been approximately 5300 hours. On anti-submarine work, as distinct from the protection of convoys, the Coastal Command’s average has been 1500 hours a month, while about 3200 hours a month have been occupied on reconnaisance flights. Up to the end of last year aircraft of the Coastal Command had sighted enemy U-boats on 260 occasions, making 166 attacks, many of which were successful. Remarkable as these figures are, all of them, including the averages, have been greatly improved upon since. BOMBING OF GERMANY. The continuous bombing of Germany throughout the winter, heavy as it has been, is nothing compared to what is in store for her during the coming months. As the strength of the R.A.F. Bomber Command grows

rapidly so will the weight of its attack upon the enemy’s war economy become ever more ponderous and smashing. The reports of recelH weeks have borne eloquent testimony to the ever-increasing fury of the R.A.F. raids. It is true that Britain is suffering from the Luftwaffe’s indiscriminate bombing, but it is certain that the balance is heavily in favour of the R.A.F. There is nothing haphazard about Britain’s bombing of Germany; no bombing of large objectives merely because they are large, or of towns because they are important. Each move in this deadly offensive has been planned with care and forethought, by the Bomber Command, working in the closest co-operation with the Ministry of Economic Warfare. I No part of Germany or of the centres of industry in the occupied coun- > tries can escape the growing attacks of the R.A.F.—(S.D.W.)