BLOWS RAINED ON GERMANY

Southland Times, Issue 24236, 20 September 1940, Page 5

BLOWS RAINED ON GERMANY

Careful Bombing By Royal Air Force DROP IN INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION (British Official Wireless) RUGBY, September 18. A comparison between the purpose of the Royal Air Force and the Nazi night bombing raids was made in a speech by the Secretary for Air, Sir Archibald Sinclair, who said that the German bombers flew at about 20,000 feet, carelessly unloading their bombs on the dark mass of London beneath. The bombers of the Royal Air Force, on the other hand, concentrated on specific military targets and, to ensure hitting them, came down to a low level —as low as 50 feet over very important targets. “Some people,” said Sir Archibald, “say that we. ought to repay the Germans in kind for their attacks upon our civilians. The truth is that it would be a betrayal of the suffering people of London to divert any of our resources from military objectives. If the air war resolved itself merely into a slogging match, Germany, as a result of the advantages which she possessed both in numerical strength and above all in the distance her aircraft had to fly, would be bound eventually to win.

TRANSPORT SYSTEM HAMMERED ’ “What we are doing is to use our available resources to smash up the German transport system and thus slow down the manufacture and distribution of munitions of war of all kinds, to smash up factories in which the Germans make their aircraft, or instruments without which aircraft coiild not be flown here, or power houses which supply electricity to factories, or oil which supplies the motive power, he said. “But don’t let us fall into the error of supposing that bombs fall any less heavily on Germany because they are well and shrewdly aimed. We have received information of a very heavy fall in industrial output in the Rhineland, and the principal reason given for that is the workers’ lack of sleep.

After pointing out some of the difficulties of defence against indiscriminate night bombing, Sir Archibald said that it was yet by no means an insoluble problem. “German airmen will . find that their reception here is increasingly warm, as indeed they have already found over London,” he said. “I am able to look forward to the time when the pleasure of night bombing over Britain and of blowing to pieces a number of humble London homes will cease to be attractive to Reich Marshal Goering and his aerial minions.”

Of great interest were the details Sir Archibald gave of the German and British air losses since August 8, when the blitzkrieg started. i The Royal Air Force had lost 621 machines of all types, fighters, bombers and general reconnaissance planes. The Nazis during the same period lost 1867 planes, while their losses in air crews amounted, to more than 4000 and those of the Royal Air Force to under 600. In air fighting in the Middle East during the same period, the Royal Air Force lost 15 aircraft, but destroyed 56 Italian planes. Moreover, these figures of enemy losses referred only to confirmed German and Italian losses, for the number of aircraft damaged was very large. AUCKLAND" SINGER KILLED (Received September 19, 6.30 p.m.) LONDON, September 18. The singer Hinemoa Rosieur, of Auckland, was killed by a bomb. Tht> High Commissioner, Mr W. J. Jordan, attended the funeral. Hinemoa Rosieur was the first vocalist to win the Melba Scholarship. She left New Zealand for Melbourne in 1934. She went to London in 1938 and sang many time before Royalty. Hinemoa Rosieur was understudying prominent opera singers. When the war broke out she began nursing in hospital. She was aged 27. RUSSIAN PRAISE FOR BRITISH DEFENCES LONDON, September 18. That Britain’s air defences are holding their own is the verdict of the Soviet Government-controlled newspaper Pravda. “The moment is approaching when not the attacked but the attackers will be influenced by the circumstances which they themselves have created,” says I Pravda. i Pointing out that supremacy in the air is the crux of the problem, Pravda says that, though the Germans have inflicted considerable damage on London, they have not yet succeeded in consolidating their numerical advantage in the air. The time is approaching when

the Germans must make up their minds to cross the 25 miles of water which for nine centuries have guarded Britain. Once the Germans make this attempt at invasion a new factor will enter into events—the British Navy.