AIR ..LOSSES.

Taihape Daily Times, 17 October 1917, Page 2

AIR ..LOSSES.

i GERMANY'S FAKED FIGURES. I The Berliner Tageblatt purports to give the relative losses in aircraft sustained by Germany ami the Allies during the three years ending with July 31 iiist. Aeeoruing to these figures the German losses in 1914 were none; in 1915, 91 j in 1910, 221; and in 1917, to July 31, 370 machines. The allies' alleged icsses for the corresponding period were 9,131,784, and 1374 respectively, thus giving Ithje Germans an advantage of 1620 machines —2298 allied a;id OS2 German aeroplanes destroyed. These figures obviously are faked, and faked deliberate.y for the purpose of concealing from the Geremuii people the extent of their losses and casualties. Owing to the absence oc any casualty returns for publication irom the .trench or Russian armk:.., we cannot check the number put d. ..u co tao aLics. out from the fibres cr bvrn'iun tosses reported cin Lu.e- i, ev:jr.i fiviit, as published perioral}' In rue press, wo can have no lu:.:.;aik>:i in Uciiying their accuracy. The Matin at the beginning of tne year Mated that the French had brought down 450 German aeroplanes in 1916, and the British 250>— 700 against the German admission of 221 —. collating the weekly figures from the British and French official reports. In the seven months ending July 31, the returns from the same sources show that 1325 German aeroplanes have been destroyed by the British, and 351 by the French or 2070, as against an admission of 370. Differences of that sort cannot occur through honest divergence or error and compel the belief that the enemy is forced by some compelling reason to falsify .his casualty list in the war. At the same time they serve to bring home to the public the nature of the task devolving en those Avho have to maintain the flying services. It is well understood that, the wastage behind the fighting line at least equals that directly caused by the •enemy, while minor mishaps compelling reconstructions are considerably more numerous, so that the estimate of 30,000 machines "wasted" in these ways since the war began is not likely to be far out.