New Tactics in the Air War

Southland Times, Issue 24230, 13 September 1940, Page 4

New Tactics in the Air War

TWO heartening developments in the air warfare during the last 48 hours have been the restoration of a higher ratio of German to British aeroplane losses and the apparent success of a new method of dealing with night raids over London. Germany’s loss of 90 planes in Wednesday’s daylight raids, compared with Britain’s 17, was relatively the heaviest she has suffered since the Nazi airmen adopted new tactics against the R.A.F. fighters. In the early days of the attack on Britain, when the Germans tried to break the defences in mass formations, Joy sheer weight of aircraft, losses five or six times as great as the British were a commonplace. But when the Nazis changed their tactics they made the defenders’ task more difficult. Instead of coming over their targets in mass, the German squadrons started splitting up into small parties as soon as they reached the English coast; and the proportion of fighters to bombers among the raiders was greatly increased. In one case, 15 bombers were protected by no fewer than 100 fighters—almost a complete reversal of the relative strengths employed at the start of the Blitzkrieg. The apparent improvement caused by these changes was perhaps accentuated by the fact that at about the same time'British fighter pilots were instructed to bale out of damaged machines rather than take the risk of landing them. Thus although the ratio of plane losses dropped at one stage to only about two to one in Britain’s favour, the ratio of pilot

losses remained at about six or seven to one, even taking into account the R.A.F. bomber crews who were shot down over Germany. Such a result was, of course, highly satisfactory; but the outcome of- Wednesday’s fighting was better still. Germany’s loss of planes was between five and six times greater than Britain’s, and hex’ loss of pilots and crews probably 10 times greater. This suggests that the R.A.F. is finding ways of countering the new German tactics, and it is a happy augury now that the final and most intensive phase of the battle seems about to begin. Quite as successful and, in its way, 'almost as important was the new method of protecting London against night raiders which was tried out on Wednesday. Instead of trying to pick out the bombers with their searchlights and shell them individually, the anti-aircraft defences, with the help of other gun crews, simply kept up a continuous barrage of fire right round the capital. The raiders were thus not only deprived of the thick beams of light which led them to their targets, but in order to fly over the streets of London they had to penetrate a curtain of fire extending, probably, almost to stratospheric heights. The wear on the guns will be severe, and the damage from shell splinters may not be light, but if the efficacy of the new method is proved by further successes it will mark a notable development in the technique of air defence.