GIVEN TO BRITISH BOMBERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 September 1940, Page 6

GIVEN TO BRITISH BOMBERS

Contrast With Enemy Standards

AIR COMMAND BEING GRADUALLY WON

ANALYSIS OF RELATIVI LOSSES

(British Official Wireless.)

(Received This Day, Noon.) RUGBY, September 1

The Prime Minister (Mr Winston Churchill) has sent the following message to the Commander-in-Chief of the Bomber Command:—

“The War Cabinet has asked me to congratulate the bomber squadrons vzho have been engaged in recent long-distance attacks on military objectives in Germany and Italy. The fact that on the occasion of the first operations in the Belgium area last Sunday week, a great majority of the pilots brought their bombs home rather than loose them under weather conditions which made it difficult to hit the precise military objectives prescribed in their orders shows the high standard of poise and self-restraint preserved by the R.A.F. in the performance of their dangerous duties. This is in marked contrast to the wanton cruelty exhibited by German flyers, who, for example, have vented their spite upon the defenceless watering place and town of Ramsgate, in which nearly a thousand dwellings and shops, mostly of a modest character, have been wrecked. It is very satisfactory that so many tons of British bombs have been discharged with such precision in difficult conditions, and at such great distances, and that so many important military objectives in Germany and Italy have been so sharply smitten. All this is another sign and proof that command of the air is being gradually and painfully, but none the less remorselessly, wrested from the Nazi criminals who hoped by this means to terrorise and dominate European civilisation.’’ In the week August 25 to August 31, the German Air Force . lost in attacks on Britain 263 planes. That is the number claimed by the Air Ministry as shot down by R.A.F. fighters and anti-aircraft defences, and it is to be remembered that enemy aircraft listed as “probably destroyed’’ or “damaged,’’ and which are never mentioned in the official communiques, sometimes equal the number claimed definitely to have been destroyed, so that the actual losses of the enemy are always greater than conservative claims of the Air Ministry make apparent. A majority of the German losses are planes carrying multiple crews, so that the loss of personnel is far greater than the number cf planes claimed by the Air Ministry. Last week’s total of 293 machines included six Dornier 215’s, which have a crew of four, 21 Dornier 107’s, with a crew of three, 18 Heinkel Ill’s with a crew of four, 28 Messerschmitt 110’s with a ciew of two, one Junkers 88, with a crew of three, and 19 bombers of unspecified type, while the remainder of the 293 are a mixture of single-seater fighters and multiple-crew bombers. It is fair to assume that the loss of these 293 planes represents a loss of over seven hundred trained airmen. In the same week the losses of the R.A.F. were 113 fighters in the defence of Britain and fifteen bombers taking part in raids on Germany. As the fighters were operating over this country, those who tcok to parachutes were picked up. These numbered 69 during the week. The total loss of R.A.F. personnel during the week probably was about 110, some of whom may be prisoners in Germany.

THUS THE COMPARATIVE LOSSES OF THE WEEK ARE:—

GERMANY:—PLANES, 293; PERSONNEL, ABOUT 700. R.A.F.:—PLANES, 128; PERSONNEL, 110,