AIR DEFENCE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 57, Issue 244, 27 July 1937, Page 8

AIR DEFENCE

RECENT MIMIC BATTLE FLEET SOON DISCOVERED. LONDON, July 15. Tho defensive value of the flying'boats of the Royal Air Force was triumphantly vindicated in the first moves of the mimic Avar in the Channel. A reconnaissance aeroplane sent up to locate the invading fleet [saw the battleship Rodney and the aircraft-carrier Courageous a long way V>ff, in spite of fog. This seemed to suggest that the ships of the Navy need to be camouflaged. It took the Courageous 20 minutes to send up seven aeroplanes to fight the reconnaissance aeroplane. In the meantime the latter had dropped smoko bombs on the deck of the Courageous. Apparently air-craft-carriers are vulnerable to surprise attack. The reconnaissance aeroplane Avas “shot doAA’n” after 56 minutes, but, in ans Aver to its previous Avarning, 18 Anson bombers AV'ere already on the Avay and appeared on the scene in another half-hour. These 18 machines sAVooped doAvn in line over the Courageous. It is a question w'hether her anti-aircraft guns Avere able to withstand this massed attack. The umpires will probably decide that the Courageous was “sunk.” The chief and comforting lesson of the first moves in the “Avar” is that even under adverse conditions Britain will not be surprised by an enemy fleet. In spite of the fog, Avithin 42 minutes of the start of hostilities the flying-boat patrols had located the entire “enemy” fleet in the Atlantic, with the exception of a few destroyers. Torpedo aeroplanes and bombers attacked the enemy’s ships continuously for more than four hours. Flashing lamps indicated the firing of guns. Heavy losses Avere suffered by both sides. Fierce resistance was offered by enemy aircraft and anti-aircraft guns.