BOMBING POLICY OF BRITAIN

Southland Times, Issue 24887, 29 October 1942, Page 5

BOMBING POLICY OF BRITAIN

AID FOR RUSSIA AND NAVY (8.0.W.) RUGBY, October 27. The Secretary for Air, Sir Archibald Sinclair, today described the Bombei Command of the Royal Air Force as the javelin which Britain had added to the sword and the trident in her armoury. . ~ Sir Archibald said that continually improving methods of search combined with hard flying in all weathers had resulted in a striking increase in the numbers of U-boats sighted and attacked from the air. Thus the Royal Air Force had helped the Navy to draw the blockade tighter round Germany and to bring Britain’s own supplies from overseas. Indeed the successes of the Royal Air Force had forced the enemy to send long-range fighters into the Bay of Biscay where the Coastal Command was hurting him most, but this had availed the Germans nothing. In the last month 12 enemy aircraft had been destroyed in the Bay of Biscay and a new high record for attacks on U-boats had been reached—4s per cent, above the best in any previous month. , . „ “It is now 18 months since Hitlei attacked Britain in force by night and another sustained air blitzkrieg on tne 1940-41 scale is unlikely,” he went on. “Tlie Germans would meet a very hot reception if they came over m force. Nevertheless, it must be remembered that their machines and their bombing technique have been improved as ours have been improved and there must be no complacency. TRANSPORT SYSTEM ATTACKED “Our own preparations for the winter nights are continuing,” he said. ‘"Hie Royal Air Force’s bombing policy this year has been dominated by two themes—helping the Navy in the Battle of the Atlantic and helping Russia. The Russians well know the value of our bombing policy which along with our fighter sweeps has forced the Germans to bring to the Western Front nearly as many fighters as they have on the whole of the Eastern Front. A famous Soviet economist recently drew attention to the serious transport difficulties hampering the German offensives at Stalingrad and Mozdok and paid a tribute to the Royal Air Force for aggravating those difficulties by its attacks on the German transport system in the west. . “It is not surprising that the weight of our bomber offensive has already been felt as far afield as Stalingrad and Mozdok for, in spite of all the diversions we have been obliged to make, its weight is growing and will grow faster still in the future. In the first 14 days of September we dropped 5000 tons of bombs in nine raids. The Germans themselves have given up trying Io conceal the damage thus done and an officer of the Luftwaffe, broadcasting from Berlin recently said: “The damage the enemy is doing to Germany cannot be denied. It is extraordinary, it is extremely great. We must admit this fact.” FOUR-FIGURE RAIDS Sir Archibald pointed out, however, that in considering the achievements of the Bomber Command it must be remembered that its force was yet so limited in size that only by an exceptional feat of organization, which could rarely be repeated, could 1000 bombers be put into the air at once. It was not true that the Government had held out the early prospect of frequent four figure raids. The most that had been said was that in a few months they would become less infrequent. That was true, but Britain did not have unlimited numbers of bombers. She wanted many more and the sooner she got them the sooner Hitler would be defeated.

He pointed out that the Americans, too, were now joining in. They had much to learn—and much to teach. Their bombing had been astonishingly accurate and they would bring a mighty and shattering reinforcement to the bombing offensive against Germany. NEW BRITISH PLANE Performance Of Mosquito (8.0.W.) RUGBY, October 27. Details have now been revealed of the new British high-speed reconnaissance bomber, the de Havilland Mosquito, Unique among contemporary operational types in being of wooden construction, it is a twin-engined monoplane powered by Rolls-Royce engines, which are fitted to three-bladed hydromatic airscrews. The engines are underslung in clean-lined nacelles. The design is excellent, with a beautiful ap-

pearance, giving the impression of high speed and extreme manoeuvrability. Its simple wooden construction lends itself to widely dispersed manufacture. The armament may consist of four 20 millimetre cannon and four .303 ma-chine-guns. The wing-span is 54 feet 2 inches and the overall length 40 feet 9J inches. Height with the tail down 13 feet 3 inches. The undercarriage and tail wheel are retractable. The Mosquito has been largely developed from the famous de Havilland Comet, which won the Macßobertson Centenary air race from England to Melbourne in 1934, but it is bigger, more powerful and much faster—not only the fastest bomber ever built, but one of the fastest aeroplanes. Already it has penetrated far into Germany in daylight to bomb important objectives with precision.