LESSON OF TWO CAMPAIGNS

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 185, 2 May 1940, Page 9

LESSON OF TWO CAMPAIGNS

Opinion On Air Tactics INDEPENDENT ARMS OPPOSED (British Official Wireless.) (Received May 1, 7.5 p.m.) RUGBY, April 30. Some students of aerial warfare regard the development of the war as showing that air forces can be more usefully employed as an adjunct to the land and sea forces rather than as an independent arm, and they point out that both in the Polish campaign by the German High Command and now in Norway by the Allied Command as well as the German it has shown the highest effectiveness when so used. They point out that where manoeuvring is still possible—“a war of movement” —then much is gained by aerial attack on the lines of communication and facilities such as air bases which, in such circumstances, must be restricted. If. however, the war becomes one of strong defensive positions occupied by opposing forces as on the Western Front, bombing attacks on military objectives behind the enemy lines dissociated from a land attack merely represent a dissipation of effort. The Allied bombing attacks in Norway and Denmark have been confined to military objectives within the sphere of actual operation. It is pointed out . that this is so in fact as well as theory. There has been no confirmed report that any civilian has been killed as a result of the Allied raids, though they have been intense. These attacks, it is emphasized, have been an essential element of the joint land, sea and air campaign being directed toward carefully chosen objectives as part, of a general tactical scheme.