AERIAL DEFENCE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 221, 18 September 1934, Page 10

AERIAL DEFENCE

BRITAIN’S TEST OUT ENCOURAGING RESULT LONDON, August 4. I Material sufficient for months of ! study by those responsible for the strategy and tactics of aerial defence was accumulated in the course of tho R.A.F. mimic war which occupied nearly 400 aeroplanes in a three nights’ conflict, with London as the main object of attack. The general impression is encouraging, with all three togs in the defence system —fighter aeroplanes, ground defences, and warning organisations — combining in smooth and efficient executed work. The Observer Corps did magnificently. Its success in following without delay the movements of two squadrons of bombers for more than 100 miles one night earned especially the high commendation of the air officers in command. The searchlights I also did well. Iln the upshot the system will undoubtedly be strengthened and improved here and there. New dispositions of squadrons may be made. There is, for example, the possibility that some fighter units which are now stationed at aerodromes on the south coast will be shifted inland to allow them a little more time for interception of raiding formations. The Air Ministry’s final report on the exercises contained the important reminder that the defence of Britain against aerial attack envisages a combination of the direct defence and the

offensive. Hence the inclusion of bombing squadrons in the home defensive force. Sir Phillip Sassoon has indicated that bomber squadons may outnumber fighter squadions in f he ratio S of approximately two to one in the 41 new squadrons which the Government proposes to add to the R.A.F. in the course of the next five years. “The action of the bombers,” he remarks, “will not merely reduce the strength and efficiency of the enemy air foi’ee, £ but if effectively directed will force : the enemy to concentrate upon defending himself rather than on attacking |