IN AIR FIGHTING OVER BRITAIN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 August 1940, Page 6

IN AIR FIGHTING OVER BRITAIN

During Period of Fifty-seven Days MACHINES IN RATIO OF MORE THAN FOUR TO ONE ' TOGETHER WITH OVER 1200 TRAINED MEN (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day. 10.50 a.m.) RUGBY, Auo'ust 14. Between June 18 and August 13, a period of 57 days, 543 enemy aeroplanes have been brought down over Britain or British waters by the R.A.F., anti-aircraft fire and the Navy, while in the same area, for the same period, 120 R.A.F. machines have been lost. The ratio of loss is therefore a little over four to one in favour of Britain.

Expressed in terms of trained personnel, these results are even more favourable, because while Germany has been deprived of 543 trained pilots, twenty-one of the 120 R.A.F. pilots brought down were saved. At the same time, the German aircraft shot down were mostly bombers and many of the enemy fighters were two-seater planes, while the British losses were all of fighters, the great majority being single-seaters. Thus to ascertain the total loss of German personnel, the figure of 543, being the number of aircraft destroyed, should, at a conservative estimate, be multiplied by two and a half, giving a total of 1,257 trained personnel lost by Germany.