MIMIC WAR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 October 1938, Page 5

MIMIC WAR

AIR MANOEUVRES OVER ENGLAND OVER 900 PLANES ENGAGED ATTACKERS SCORE IN RAID. More than 900 aeroplanes were engaged recently when a three-day mimic war over England was held to demonstrate the air defence efficiency of the country. The manoeuvres were the biggest yet arranged, and although some time must elapse before the full results are known, it has been concluded that mass attacks in the air against a highly efficient defence force may be more dangerous to the attackers than to the attacked.

Half of the aeroplanes were engaged as an attacking force, and half in defence of air stations and strategic points. Many of the attackers were capable of speeds approaching 300 miles an hour. Defending a territory embracing some 200 miles of coastline round the east and south-east of Britain were fighters, bombers, anti-air-craft divisions, searchlight units, and the Observer Corps, forces aggregating 35,000 officers and men. Wide stretches of the North Sea were also affected, for somewhere within it lay "Eastland an imaginary country from which “Westland” was attacked. Matched against each other were Royal Air Force squadrons equipped with modern high-performance monoplanes, including the Battle, Welleslej, Whitley and Blenheim bombers. The high proportion of successful interceptions was because of the high speed of the fighters, particularly of the formidable eight-gun Hurricanes. Going into action by night and by day they weie able to overtake even the 280 m.p.h. Blenheims, fastest bombers in service in the world. The level speed of a Hurricane is between five and six miles a minute, and when diving its speed may be more than 400 miles an hour. Fighting for the “Eastland” enemy were Battle, Blenheim, Wellesley, Whitley, and Anson bombers, ranging from fast to medium-fast, with short and long range, and capable of carrying widely varying loads. The striking force was thus well equipped for all raids The chief defending aircraft were the Hurricane monoplanes: Gladiator and Gauntlet biplane fighters; the Demon two-seat fighter fitted with a power-operated gun turret, and the Fury interceptor biplane. Supporting the defending fighters were large Harrow and Hendon monoplane bombers, and a number of other aircraft; detailed to simulate raids issuing from “Westland” and exercise ground observers in distinguishing friend from foe. Targets attacked included some in London, Tangmere, Leeds, near Leicester, Wittering, and Swindon. One of the first views which Londoners had of the aeroplanes taking part in the exercises occurred when a formation of three bombers was seen over the West End. But the best spectacle of all for Londoners occurred shortly afterwards, when 24 high-speed Fairey Battle single-engined bombers swept right across London from east to west and were “engaged” by two Hawker Hurricane fighters. Most of the bomber flying was done in formations of three each; but at night a lot of work was done by the Ansons flying singly and sometimes darting in to make short raids on the coast. Some of the most spectacular events occurred in the lowflying raids on aerodromes when the “enemy” bombers suddenly appeared over the tree tops, through the heat haze, to send an aerodrome in to a fever of activity.

One raid scored a hit that in wartime would have been great. The invaders bombed Sir Kingsley Wood, Air Minister, who was accompanied by his Parliamentary Secretary, Sir Edward Campbell, and the Chief of Staff at the Air Ministry. The party were visiting Hornchurch, Essex, a Royal Air Force field, one of the defence bases, examining the aeroplanes, when the bombers suddenly appeared, only a few feet above their heads, below the level of the hangars, streaking along at more than 250 miles an hour. They had evaded the defenders by flying low ever the fields and woods. In wartime neither Sir Kingsley Wood and his staff nor the Hornchurch field would have been in existence two minutes afterwards —nothing but a series of smoking bomb craters where once an airfield had been.

Throughout the three days of the exercises not a single case of mechanical failure was reported among the 900 aeroplanes engaged. Misadventure befell six aircraft in fog thick enough to spell disaster for land or sea vehicles, yet scores of aeroplanes which were still aloft when the fog descended safely found the way