FAILURE' MANIFEST

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 November 1940, Page 4

FAILURE' MANIFEST

ENEMY AIR ATTACKS ON BRITAIN NAZI ATTEMPTS TO MASK REPULSE. LOSSES IN OCTOBER. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, November 1. In an editorial “The Times” says Germany lost about 250 planes over Britain in October compared with the usual monthly total of over 1000, but if material casualties were fewer loss of prestige was far greater. The figures confirm that the attempt to blast a way for invasion have definitely failed.

“The reported use of Italian planes must be an effort to mask the repulse of purely German forces by a demonstration of Axis solidarity,” says “The Times,” “but cannot conceal the fact that smaller numbers are'delivering attacks. Also fighters and fighter-bomb-ers capable of carrying smaller loads are employed and tactics have been revised to avoid combat.

“Moreover, the attacks generally are less intense even at night time. Enemy losses at’night are heavier, despite the use of fewer planes, which may be an additional sign that Germany cannot hope to do at night what she failed to do by day. “The defeat of air attacks as an, instrument of invasion does not mean that the threat if invasion has passed. We must recognise that mastery of the air must still be won everywhere, and that the possibility of a renewed assault against Britain is not merely something the enemy wants us to believe.”