NAZI AIR TACTICS

Evening Star, Issue 23690, 25 September 1940, Page 10

NAZI AIR TACTICS

TRICKS EMPLOYED COMBINATIONS OF TYPES Hitler’s air tactics are no longer a) secret, and, although their fomidability is by no means •it is gratifying to learn that, man fop ■man, the Royal Air Force continues to : show marked superiority—and that thei Nazis know-it, wrote the London cdr-t respondent of the ‘ Johannesburg . Star ’ recently. It is now learned that Hitler usec| out-of-date bombers in his “ blitzkrieg ” tactics against the These machines—Junkers Ju. 86’s and, Dornier Do. 17’s particularly—have been working in conjunction with faster types. The 1 Evening Standard ’ describes how air formations work in conjunction with tanks. Attacks start early at dawn, preferably in extremely clear weather. Dive bombers and reconnaissance planes “ ring up the curtain ” by approaching objectives at a great height m the' dim light. They radio back to headquarters the dispositions of the ground formations. Then several of them “ peel off - bank and dive—when Allied anti-air-craft fire opens. To gunners on the ground it might appear that several Germans have been hit, but the hit ’A Junkers continue to dive, reaching 350 miles an hour. When Allied gunner® are still firing at machines remaining aloft the dive bombers drop salvoes with fair accuracy. This trick was well exploited in| Poland. These dive bombers dovetail into another form of attack. From the rising sun. whoso first rays are blinding to anti-aircraft gunners, wave after wave* of “ air artillery ” approach in a shallow dive giving extra speed. At 25,000 ft and 16,000 ft squadrons of Messerschmitt 109’s and 110’s and Heinkel fighters—the higher squadrons watching for Allied fighters and the lower stratum ready to resist counterbombing—fly at half-throttle to avoid overrunning the “ air artillery ” they are protecting. Although the ' Allied gunners get busy, they and the infantry and mechanised battalions are immediately subjected to avalanche after avalanche of medium-weight bombs. As a contrast to these high-speed; tactics, the Nazis are also employing machines with extremely low speeds. Their use possibly explains how tho Germans are able to “ drop ” heavilyequipped troops, even light tanks fitted with special springs, without injury. ■ The pilot of a Blenheim bomber has experienced one of these slow flyers, which “ hovered ” so successfully that he overshot it. The Blenheim was returning from Germany when the pilot sighted an unfamiliar aircraft flying low along a deep valley. Diving at 300 miles an hour, the Blenheim attacked, opening fire- at 35yds. “ To my amazement,” the pilot reported, “ tho enemy appeared to stand still in tho air, forcing mo to overshoot.” » The pilot pulled out of the dive and sought to renew his attack, hut th® enemy was now flying so low that tho steepness of the valley prevented him. The mystery of this “ hovering ” aircraft was later solved when th® machine was identified as a Fieseler “ Storch ” —a German trainer type of aircraft with extensively slotted wings, endowing it with remarkable_ low-flying qualities. Its proper name is Fieseler FT 156, and it was evolved by Gerhard Fieseler, the aerobatic pilot, for his aerial displays. The Fieseler has a top speed of about; 110 miles an hour and a minimum of only 31 miles an hour, which is ' hovering ” compared with normal modem speeds.