TAKES A LONG TIME

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 77, 1 June 1943, Page 2

TAKES A LONG TIME

EOR BRITAIN TO START

BUT WHEN SHK DOES,-

"•it takes the British a long timo to get going, but when they finally do hit their stride '-hey are rather magnificent. That concentration of 1000 bombers over Cologne in the

space of 90 minutes. and repetition ot" the i'ent elsewhere within thre» days, is a striking example. It took tedious careful preparation. and it was a feal unmatched by the (lor. mans. The ful: magnitude of the. task of getting off that many planes and of bringing them hack to home ports sal'e'y can be appreciated. only by a railroad man who is familiar with the problems of a train dispatcher. Tn addition to traffic problems, there are organisational difficulties. such as marshalling extra gasoline where they will be-needed, and tlv* loading of planes at different airports with bombs, incendiaries, or the cameras appropriate to the task assigned to individual aircraft. The size of this job can be understood only when

it is realised that it takes between 40 and 50 people—mechanics, armourers and other humbler heroes — to get each one of those giant bombers off the ground. Yet Avhcn the. job was done it was typical of the British that there was: a modicum of crowing over the achievement and no gloating over the suffering inflicted on the enemy, but. on the contrary, relief that Cologne Cathedral had been more fortunate than some of those in this country." From Raymond Daniell's "Portrait of John Bull/'