LONDON’S AIR MENACE

Hokitika Guardian, 30 October 1928, Page 8

LONDON’S AIR MENACE

BOMBERS NO ONE CAN STOP

OUR BEST DEFENCE-ATTACK

By HARRY HARPER, Author o “The Air Way, \\ “The Steel Coni structiou of Aeroplanes,” etc.'

Problems of the utmost gravity arise as a result of the air manoeuvres 'just ended.

Nothing like them has ever had to bo faced before. We are building up a system for the defence of London. Its aim is to prevent aerial raiders from reaching the metropolis. But can it do sop' It is admirably planned, splendidly manned. But how many ,high-flying raiders ‘could it be expected to intercept?. At the end of the Great War the results obtained by the defence were most encouraging, but we cannot draw too much comfort from that to-day. The bombers with which the defence had to deal could only fly at fairly low altitudes with their heavy loads. Nor were they capable oif flying very fast.. , ... Year by year since then the offensive in air'war has been growing more formidable. During the recent exercises we, had the spectacle of a squadron of (raiders, designed for height and speed, which had come ,in again and again from the coast, eluding interception, and has been able, theoretically, to rain bombs in the metropolis. Even more disturbing has been the fact that our defence fighters, when they managed to- get near these elusive enemies, found they were not fast enough to deal with them. The raiders outstripped the fighters supposed to shoot .them down. ' , .

f And the bomber which has run the gauntlet so successfully is not the fastest available. A newer type, which we shall see in the next manoeuvres, is very appreciably faster, and, unless wo can manage to increase materially the speeds, of our fighters, this new weapon will have us at its mercy.

It will be able to rush in at immense heights, its crew using oxygenbreathing ■ apparatus, and deliver, a lightning raid before there is any hope of stopping it. . ; -■ \ 500 TONS OF BOMBS.

According to an -expert estimate, during the four days, of mimic war which ended on Thursday, 500 tons of bombs—if the. conditions had been those of actual war—could have been dropped on London by the raiders which penetrated the defences. I do not think people need to be reminded of what that would have meant. The horrors oif gas warfare are realised. It is a nightmare, something so dreadful that one’s inclination is to banish it from one’s mind.

But is it right that one should do so? What we have seen during the air manoeuvres makes it perilous to pretend that all is well.

Is there any really effective defence in the air? Can we hope to prevent so many raiders reaching their objective that the terrors of gas-war artkept from our civilian hosts? We cannot. It is certain beyond the shadow of a doubt that very .many hostile craft, flying fast and high, wouldcreep in and drop their tubes of death. HELPLESS MILLIONS. One assumes that our defensive machinery would do valuable work. .But having regard to the vast area off the sky, And the speeds and heights 81 which raiders will be able-to move in a few years’ time, its task would be hopeless. It would be unable to intercept a sufficient number to prevent death in a dregdful form from falling upon defenceless humanity, or to save London from becoming a city of chaos."

What are we going to do about it' That is what ordinary people ask. Are searchlights, guns, and defensive aeroplanes worth the expense they entail : The answer of experts is that thi ground organisation, particularly the guns and the aerial nets and mines, would have the effect off forcing hostile formations into given areas of the sky, where it would be easier for our fighters to attack them.

That argument is entitled to respect, lint it is not really an answer to questions people have in their minds. THE WORST MENACE. They feel that there is something new and disquieting in the knowledge that we are faced by a menace against which we apparently cannot defend ourselves. We have never had to contemplate anything like it before. It may be reassuring to know that official committees are studying how life might be made temporarily supportable in a city in which poison gases are drifting about the streets. Gas-masks, of course. But can one live in a gas-mask ?

It is not just a sporadic series oif raids we have to contemplate, but wave after wave, day and night, and going on perhaps,for weeks. Can one imagine the life of a tremendous city like London continuing with any semblance of normality under such conditions ? It seems impossible. There is talk of evacuating London’s millions. But where would they go? How would they he fed? Others talk of enormous underground gas-proof shelters, used in peace time as motor-car garages. But so much of it seems just talk. What one is beginning to Ifeel is that this problem is of a magnitude beyond any present method of approach. One group of officials gives you to understand that it is looking alter this ; another informs you that it is attending to that. But is some master-brain, or group of brains, coming to actual grips with this problem, facing stark facts? What is really the plan? Nobody

seems to know. All we know is tha the aerial offensive is outstripping the defensive and that at the moment there is no, known method of preventing aeroplanes Ifrpm coming over London and dropping the most terrible poisons on millions of people. ,

Only one tangible fact emerges. It is that it is fundamentally wrong to envisage aerial warfare from a defensive point of view. ■ ; , Any prospective enemy, casting eyes on Britain, would never be deterred Ir knowing that we had built up a ring o! defences round London.

What would make him hesitate would bo the knowledge that we had provided ourselves with a fleet of tremendously powerful, long-range bombers, and that with these machines wo were capable, at a moment’s notice, of hitting any enemy very much harder than it uas possible for him to hit us. The only way to obtain anything like security in the air is to possess bombing aircraft which can fly faster, higher and farther than those of any possible enemy within striking distance. In the air it is the power to strike, and nof to defend, which is - one’s surest shield.