ATTACK BY AIR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 March 1940, Page 5

ATTACK BY AIR

LESSONS OF SCAPA RAID & OTHERS DEFENCES NOT INVULNERABLE. RETALIATION WILL BE SWIFT & SURE. By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright. LONDON, March 26. Authoritative quarters describe the earlier German Scapa Flow raid as a “well-timed operation' favoured by some good luck.” Arriving as daylight, was fading, the raiders were able to make use of such light as remained tb carry out the raid and rely on the gathering darkness to conceal their flight home. The technique adopted was that of successive waves of planes making sudden dives from about 800 feet. Such small damage as was done, it is thought, was caused by the first flight, as the remaining waves met a reception from the anti-aircraft defences which clearly put them off their aim.

The difficulty of fighter planes making contact with bombers in darkness is pointed out. Unless searchlights pick up the raiders a mere knife-edge view is presented which is extremely difficult for the fighter pilot to see. It is thought that this explains why R.A.F. reconnaissance aircraft have flown a great many times over Germany without being found by defending aeroplanes and why. in the case of the Sylt raid, the Nazis relied almost entirely on the ground defences, making little or no attempt to fight the bombers in the air. The only British aircraft brought down on this occasion fell a victim to low-firing anti-aircraft guns. Informed aviation quarters take the opportunity of warning the British public that if large-scale air -attacks are made over England many enemy aircraft, must be expected to get through and there is no inclination on the part of the authorities here, as there is in Germany, to persuade the public that the air defences are invulnerable.

There is confidence in the belief that the free British public will preserve their morale should civilian bombing occur much better than a population which has long been subjected to an authoritarian regime.

The R.A.F. may be expected to deal faithfully with a high percentage of the raiding aircraft and it is not doubted that the British people will steel themselves to endure any frightfulness the Nazis deem expedient to perpetrate in the certain knowledge that retaliation will be swift and sure.