DRAIN ON AIR FORCES

Waikato Times, Volume 128, Issue 21357, 27 February 1941, Page 6

DRAIN ON AIR FORCES

German airmen who were sent into the Mediterranean to show the Italians how to bomb British shipping have not been conspicuously successful. Their latest attack on a convoy was disastrous to themselves. Not one of the ships was damaged but five German bombers were blasted from the skies. Naval anti-aircraft guns as well as British fighters have shown extraordinary efficiency in the Mediterranean and have gained and held undoubted superiority over the enemy. The Italian Air Force has almost ceased to function excepting over waters close to Italy and in Albania.

German airmen are still reported to be travelling through Italy to Sicily, but their only activity to date has apparently been bombing attacks on shipping and in certain parts ol Libya, particularly at Benghazi, where Italian residents have suffered more than the Allied armies. How many aeroplanes Germany will be able to send south is not known. That will depend largely upon the volume of current German production. Presumably the Germans will not dare to detract from the forces on the western front beyond a certain point. Britain has been sending large numbers of planes eastward, but they are coming from current production and do not mean that the forces opposed to Germany in the west, have been weakened. From now on, productive capacity will become of paramount importance to the rival air forces. The area of the war is spreading. If Germany contemplates an offensive in the Balkans she will have need of large numbers of planes there. An air strength adequate for a campaign on the western front, or even for an attempted invasion of Britain, would become seriously thinned when spread over the thousands of miles of fighting front over which the war now extends. It will require tremendous productive capacity to supply the machines required for all these operations and then to maintain them at adequate strength. The Powers with the greatest resources must gain an advantage eventually, for the original equipment of an air force does not withstand wear and tear very long.