DEFENDED CORNER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 September 1940, Page 5

DEFENDED CORNER

SOUTH-EAST ENGLAND MANY ENEMY ATTACKS ON AERODROMES. LIMITED AND TEMPORARY EFFECTS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, September 5. It was authoritatively stated that the blitzkrieg against Royal Air Force aerodromes in the south-east of England so far has failed to drive the British fighter opposition from this corner of Britain, the nearest to the enemy. It is not denied that several advanced aerodromes have been severely hammered, but not one has been out of commission for longer than “a very short time.” Gangs of men with plenty of material are continually ready to fill in any craters in the runways. Naturally there have been some changes in dispositions in the last fortnight in order to meet the intensification of the enemy onslaught, but the first-line fighter defence over the south-east coast remains as tough and trustful as ever.

This is illustrated by a sharp increase during the past week in the number of escort fighters which the Germans have been compelled to send to get any of their bombers through. The proportion of Messerschmitts to Dorniers has reached five to one, and British fighter losses have increased as a result of this strengthening, but our pilots are still harassing the enemy’s bombers as well as his fighters. The combined fighter and anti-air-craft defence is breaking up the enemy formations more and more swiftly, and London’s daytime air alarms are becoming correspondingly shorter.