The Waikato Times. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1940. AERIAL BLITZKRIEG FAILING

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21245, 16 October 1940, Page 6

The Waikato Times. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1940. AERIAL BLITZKRIEG FAILING

Although it would be foolish to allow optimism to lessen the war effort, there is reason to believe that Britain has successfully withstood and countered the German air blitzkrieg. That does not mean that the attacks will soon be ended or that further heavy punishment has not yet to be endured. It means simply that Britain has probably endured what is equal to the worst punishment that Germany can inflict and has not wilted. The London Daily Telegraph says that as a result of a German blunder information has been received that the German General Staff has admitted that the attacks on Britain had reached their maximum and that the German losses wei beginning to tell. If that is so the fact represents a most important stage in the whole course of the war. One of the major threats in Germany’s long campaign of nerves has been that somewhere in Germany there was a vast reserve of warplanes, and that Goering had only to touch a button to release a wave of destruction that would annihilate Britain. Now it is believed that Goering has had the button pressed down hard for more than two months and that Germany has been exerting the utmost effort of which she is capable. It would be unreasonable to suppose it is otherwise. Germany has had the most desperate need to smash Britain quickly and for all time. It is against logic to suggest that she has been fighting at the most critical period with only a portion of her strength. Defeat of Britain was to be the end of the war as far as Europe was concerned, and half-measures could not have been a part of the German programme. Beyond a doubt, Germany’s opportunity has been in the past few months, and in all conscience the onslaught has been terrible enough. Certainly every aeroplane could not be thrown into the attack. Ordinary caution demanded that a reasonable reserve should be held for contingencies, but the world will be surprised if Germany is able to demonstrate that she has not employed all the offensive air strength that she could use without courting disaster. She has failed to reach her objective and opportunities are slipping away quickly. Her day of undisputed numerical superiority in the air is passing, if it has not already passed, and the Nazi dream of the aerial conquest of Britain has not been realised. Nobody imagines that Germany is not still capable of hammering away at British targets and causing further death and destruction, but when Britain has the certain knowledge that Goering cannot release an irresistible air armada, much of the terror will have been taken out of the Nazi threat. And terror inspired by such a belief has been one of Germany’s most potent weapons ever since the war began. Britain perhaps already knows the worst. When she knows the full strength of the enemy she will endure attacks and continue the fight with even greater confidence, knowing that the incomparable resources of the Empire and of the United States are steadily being brought to bear against an enemy who is incapable of further acceleration.