BRITISH BOMBERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 January 1940, Page 5

BRITISH BOMBERS

FINE RECORD OF SERVICE DIFFICULTIES OF WINTER FLYING. MERITS OF THE WELLINGTONS AND BLENHEIMS. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, January 8. The great difficulties encountered by the Royal Air Force bomber command in dealing with frost were told in London today. When flying at great heights an aeroplane is sometimes rendered almost unmanageable by frost and ice. With the temperatures often 20 to 30 degrees below zero centigrade, ice forms on the wings and main fuselage six inches thick, and even enters the cabins in the form of powdery rime, where it coats the flying instruments and blankets the windscreens, sometimes accumulating to such an extent on the controls as to render the machine almost uncontrollable. In overcoming these difficulties as well as enemy action the R.A.F. has every reason to be proud of its bomber command personnel and aircraft. The latter are of many types, and the operational range has been considerably increased since the war began. Authoritative London air circles are convinced by the actual results that the Wellington bombers are the finest aeroplanes of that type in the world. They have reached their objective and returned, fighting both ways, and with the losses negligible compared with those suffered by the enemy. London air circles consider that against the Wellingtons the German Messerschmitt fighters have failed to show any superiority. Reconnaissance flights have been carried out over Germany by new, fast Blenheims, which on one occasion, flying as low as 2000 feet over enemy aerodromes, shot at two German machines which were landing and then carried on with their photography. It is estimated that for every one photograph which an enemy reconnaissance flight has taken back from England the R.A.F. has brought back 50 taken over Germany.