RECORD SPEED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 229, 26 September 1940, Page 6

RECORD SPEED.

SQUADRONS IN AIR.

WHEN NAZIS ATTACK.

HOW BRITAIN TALLIES 'KILLS'

(By VINCENT SHEEAN.)

LONDON, August 20.

A few American correspondents sat in the control centre for the south-eastern group of a fighter command while operations were directed against four important German attacks. We had gone there by appointment to hear the details of a previous large-scale air battle, but, before we arrived and while we were there, the Germans were repeating their performance. Fighter operations are centralised by a complex, but smooth-running system of communications and warnings. Information comes from numerous sources in the Navy, the Air Force, and the Coastal Command, all of whom are centred at the Fighter Command. The Fighter Command has instantaneous communication with a separate group command. Our group command was that which controls the most consistently attacked part of England, that in which both British and German lighters can operate best because each is operating within range of its aerodromes. Our air vieemarshal called it "The Playground."

Like Ship's Chart Room. The central office where operations are directed is rather like the chart room of a big ship, with many maps, charts and scoreboards and a system of constant reporting. It runs so smoothly now that, -within a very short time of warning that the Germans are coming, word has gone out to the waiting squadrons and British fighter planes are actually in the air. The battle we saw started like the previous one with a big attack from the nearest coast —70 to 90 aeroplanes. Hurricanes and Spitfires got into this cloud of Germans and did heavy execution. The next attack was in the same region, but a considerably heavier raid was initiated 10 minutes later on another coast. The fourth attack of the day, involving between 30 and 40 German planes, started shortly after noon on the east coast. In each of these four battles, the group command that I observed wa3 able to get squadrons into the air with record speed and important results. A statement on gains and losses always must wait for an Air Ministry communique. When we left the control centre, 18 German planes were ."confirmed" as ■ shot down. 16 German casualties were "unconfirmed," three were "probable," and 13 were "damaged." Pilots' claims are "uncomfirnied" unless two or more witnesses report on them, although "unconfirmed" kills ajre certainly true ones. A Steady Average. , « }

English fighters are keeping up a pretty steady average of a four-to-one superiority over German fighters—that is, they briug down four Gcrmaiw for each fighter they lose. Hurricanes and Spitfires easily outclass Messerechniitts, both the 109 and 110, in performance. The new German fighter, the Heinkel 113, which first appeared over Dunkirk is apparently now coming forward in greater number since last week.

In all recent attacks the Germans have shown their healthy respect for British fighters by coming over with immense escorts. Xowadays they think it wise to provide fighter escorts in a proportion of five, six or even 10 to each bomber. The British system of a dispersal of aerodromes is so good and communications here are so rapid that they are able to give immediate combat wherever the attack appears. Many lessons have been learned from various failures in France.

To hear the reports coming in and the orders going out is to acquire renewed faith in the fighter command here. The system of charts and report sheets shows the solid basis for Air Ministry communiques.—X.A.X.A.