AIR POWER OF ALLIES

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21554, 17 January 1940, Page 7

AIR POWER OF ALLIES

Nazis Disturbed By Record Survey

Significant Warning

British Official Wireless

RUGBY. January 15.

The remarkable record flight by machines of the R.A.F. Bomber Command last Friday night over Southc- r Germany and as far as Vienna and Prague, has captured the imagination of the public. The German High Command refers to the exploit in a single sentence which states: “Isolated enemy aircraft carried out a reconnaissance flight over German territory,” but the German News Agency, in an attempt to minimise the significance of the flights, claims that they were made at night, and did not reach as far as Bratislava, and that the British aeroplanes turned back for home west of Prague and Vienna.

The “Daily Telegraph” contrasts this flight of more than 1000 miles over German territory and 1000 miles back, without .a single casualty in machines or men, with the vain attempts all last week of German bombers to elude the British coastal defences. •

Referring to the dropping of leaflets on Vienna and Prague during this reconnaissance flight, the "Daily Telegraph” states: “Even where Hitlerism rules the truth of facts will seep through into men’s minds. From this most brilliant survey flight of the war it will become known to Germans that the Fuhrer cannot defend them from the air power of the Allies, and that the most remote part of the Reich is not safe when Britain and France choose to strike.” The “Daily Telegraph” continued to point out that the range of the Wellington bomber with a full war load is far greater than 2000 miles, and it recalls that Britain already possesses a smaller type of bomber which has done more than 7000 miles non-stop. Black-outs Ordered in Austria Referring to this flight, the “Manchester Guardian” states: “In no other way in history has such a tremendous sweep of reconnaissance into enemy territory been carried out.” Elsewhere the “Manchester Guardian” states: “That British aeroplanes could have flown so far unmolested and have dropped leaflets will certainly have aroused intense, even if concealed, enthusiasm in Vienna and Prague. If similar flights can be made over Warsaw, the effect would also be very great.” The effect of this flight on the German authorities has apparently been real, for, according to a Zurich press report, the German military authorities have decreed that thorough black-out conditions are to be enforced immedi ately throughout Austria, and alt'- rngh the reason given is economy of coal, all Vienna realises that the real reason is the recent British flight over Vienna. It is believed that British aeroplanes flew over north-west Germany last night. The German wireless stations were silent for some time.