WHAT NAZI AIR FORCE LACKS

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 154, 25 March 1939, Page 6 (Supplement)

WHAT NAZI AIR FORCE LACKS

Planes Built Of Substitute Materials

What is the truth about Hiller's air force? For long it has been regarded as the most powerful weapon of offence owned by any nation in the world. This belief is only partly supported by the latest available facts. It still ■outnumbers Britain’s R.A.F. by at least three planes to one, but production has been pushed on so rapidly that, plane for plane, the German force is much inferior, writes Victor Burnett in the “Sunday Express.” The Germans have staked all on quantity. They have built cheaply with “substitute” materials.

Goering, Germany’s Air Minister, believes that, in the event of war. planes on both sides would be shot down in such numbers that expensive design and equipment would simply be wasted. That the only real factor is to have vast quantities of planes available. But there is another view, held by Air Force authorities here, and by most of the world’s aviation experts.

This is that poor-quality planes and lack of first-class equipment, will damage the striking power of an’air force: That, with modern speeds of 300 m.p.h. and more, not only proper instruments, but the best jxtssible gtiTf turrets and sights arc vitally necessary. Most important of all, there Is the moral effect o n the pilot. The German

fliers know that their accident rate is far higher than that of the R.A.F.. and this lack of confidence saps efficiency more than anything else. R.A.F. machines are fitted with every type of flying instrument. New accurate gun and bomb-sighting devices' 1 have been developed for them.

’[’lie guns themselves are in turrets, power-driven, so that fire can be brought to bear on another machine even if a 300-iu.p.b. wind stream is beating down on the gun. On the German planes only barely necessary instruments are fitted. Gunners have no power-driven turrets to aid them. They are out in the open, or enclosed in simply-built, blind-, operated turrets. They would find great difficulty in operating their guns at speeds over 200 m.p.h. The sighting devices for the bombs are crude —but quick and cheap to fit. Lack of all this equipment means, of course, that a complete warplane can lie produced'in a very much shorter period. Continuous trouble is being experienced with tlie German engines. Failures occur often. Every day, day in, day out, three German air force planes crash. This means 1095 crashes a year.