GERMAN AIR FORCE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20310, 21 May 1934, Page 7

GERMAN AIR FORCE.

Machines Ready for Quick Assembly. A SECRET AERODROME. United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. (Received May 21, 1.40 p.m.) LONDON, May 20. The “ Daily Express ” publishes an air mail article dispatched by Pembroke Stephens just prior to his arrest, in which he describes the largest aerodrome in Germany and probably in Europe, situated at Celle, a few miles from the civil aerodrome, Hanover. There is, therefore, no commercial justification for the new airport, which is designed purely for military purposes. It is surrounded by woods, and is invisible from road or rail,” the article states. “ Not even Storm Troopers are admitted. Three huge hangars have been completed and workmen are busy constructing barracks for pilots and mechanics. Excavations are being made for subterranean bomb-proof shelters for both planes and personnel.

“ Huge petrol containers, painted and camouflaged grey-green, are mounted on mechanised waggons. Germany has now no visible military air fleet, but it really exists scattered throughout Germany, engines in one factory, wings in another, bodies elsewhere, awaiting either the Powers’ authority or the breaking of the Disarmament Conference for immediate assembly. “ Quantities of American and British engines are being imported.”