Air Assault Withstood

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21805, 7 November 1940, Page 6

Air Assault Withstood

KTOTHING could be more encouraging than Mr ’ Churchill’s declaration in the House of Commons that “there was no doubt that the full malice and power of the enemy and his bombing force had been employed against us.” At various times in the past two or three months the Prime Minister emphasised, in preparing the people of Great Britain for terrible trials, that the full strength of the German air force had not been exerted against the United Kingdom. He has always tended to be cautious and conservative in estimating the striking capacity of Germany and he is not likely to have departed from this sensible principle in announcing now, after the experience of the past two months, that an accurate measure of Germany’s air force has been obtained, obtained. What makes this statement so heartening is that Britain has experienced little difficulty in surviving the shocks of the air Blitzkrieg. Considerable damage has been done; a large number of civilians have been slaughtered or maimed, but on the whole the casualties have been mercifully below expectations. The important point is that none of the essential services have broken down, nor has there been serious interruption of work in essential industries. Mr Churchill admits that time was lost while the country was adapting itself to total warfare on the home front, but he was able to add that this time would be made up when the nation settled itself to the new conditions. Since the Royal Air Force has been able to establish mastery of the air over Britain, and in doing so inflict casualties on a crippling scale upon the enemy, it is simple to deduce that in the future, when Britain has a greater supply of machines and personnel, total superiority in the air can be reasonably assured. Hitler believed that he would be able to raze Britain from the air; he believed that he would be able to smash the moral of the people with bombs, but now it is proved conclusively that his brutal plans have gone awry. No doubt he has been shatteringly surprised by the revelation that the Royal Air Force could not only resist his attack, but could also make drastic reprisals against Berlin in return for the raids upon London. The candour with which Mr Churchill approaches all questions relating to the war is shown once more by his reference to the German attacks upon shipping in which he said that the recent sinkings of vessels were more serious than the air raids. The U-boat menace is considerable, and this campaign will certainly be intensified as the Nazis realise that other weapons were less sucessful than they had anticipated. However, the problem of dealing effectively with submarines will be solved again just as it was after the disasters of 1917. For the present the greatest danger lies in the Atlantic approaches to the British Isles, and, as Mr Churchill says, British difficulties are being multiplied because the south-west coast of Ireland cannot be used to defend shipping. Perhaps this problem, too, will solve itself before long in the face of a peril which has not so far been kept at bay by neutral countries in the danger zone.