NEARING PARITY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 129, 14 July 1941, Page 6

NEARING PARITY

AIRCRAFT PRODUCTION BRITISH AND GERMAN OUTPUT A leading British aviation authority writing at the end of March said the latest information suggests "that not only is the combined output of the British and American aircraft industries little short o? that of Germany and the enslaved nations, but also that the total firstline strengths of the Royal Air Force and the Luftwaffe are not so far apart as> some have supposed. In quality we still hold the lead, and in the near future, in bombers particularly, we look like increase ing it still further,"" Lord Beaverbrook, speaking on: March 23, as Minister of Aircraft i Production, said that the total of British bombers and fighters in reserve ready for immediate opera-, tion, was a record, surpassing Anything in the history of Hying. H? emphasised that this vast accumulation of aircraft in tho storage houses hidden up and down thn countryside of Britain, applied to both fighters and bombers—-both types' had reached the highest total in the/ country's aviation history. The monthly rate of production wa:' still mounting. In recent months the scope of the R.A.F. bombing attacks or. military objectives in German}' and occupied territory as well as on the enemy's shipping communications has been continuously expanded both in re ';pect of the numbers of aircraji employed and the weight of bombs •/Topped. During I lie last three weel;? there have been nightly raids oreGermany and daily daylight sweeps over occupied France. Now there flic daylight bombing raids over; north-western Germanv.