TAKES A LONG TIME

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 3267, 24 May 1943, Page 8

TAKES A LONG TIME

FOR BRITAIN TO START BUT WHEN SHE DOES—“It takes the British a long time to get going, but when they finally do hit their stride they are rather magnificent. That concentration of 1000 bombers over 'Cologne in the space of 90 minutes, and: repetition of the feat elsewhere within three days, is a striking example. It took tedious, careful preparatian, and it was a feat, unmatched by the Germans. The full magnitude of the task of getting off that many planes and of bringing them back, to home ports safely can be appreciated only by a railroad man who is familiar with the problems of a train dispatcher. In addition to traffic problems, there are organisational I difficulties, such as marshalling extra . gasoline supplies where they will be needed, and the 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 un- , derstood 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 when 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 in dieted 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.”