GREAT BATTLES WON

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 November 1940, Page 4

GREAT BATTLES WON

AGAINST NAZI AIR FORCE

ENEMY’S TREMENDOUS LOSSES. EFFORT NOW VISIBLY WEAKENED. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, November 2. Figures of German air losses show that since August 8, when the first big air battle was fought round the British coasts, fighters, gunners, balloon barrages and other causes have accounted for 2433 German bombers, fighterbombers and fighters, which

e have been destroyed in almostequal numbers. But the most severe blow which the Fighter Command has dealt to the Luftwaffe has been the loss of train's ed airmen. Allowing the usual numc her of pilots, observers and air-gun-ners to the various types destroyed, j more than 6000 German airmen have j been killed or taken prisoner. The _ Fighter Command has lost only 353 a pilots in these engagements. The weekly figures reveal a gradual r weakening of the German effort, despite continuously-changing tactics. The attacks began on August 8, when three mass dive-bombing attacks were j made on shipping convoys and har- , hours. The German lost 24 of their " famous Junkers 87 dive bombers and 36 Messerschmitt 110 and Messerf schmitt. 109 fighters. GREATEST ATTACK. 1 Seven days later, 1000 German 1 bombers and protecting fighters ’ launched the biggest attack in the ■ history of air fighting. At the end of l that day the Germans had lost 180 aircraft and during that week they ’ lost 472 bombers and fighters, which J still remains a record for seven days’ > fighting. ’ That week their bomber losses were ’ 234, against 162 of their fighters, to- ’ gether with one float plane and 75 unidentified aircraft. Of those 234 ; bombers, 161 were dive bombers — ’ Junkers 87 and 88. " From then onward the Germans ’ changed their tactics. Examination of ’ the figures from then till the present ’ shows that’ the use of the Junker dive bombers —hitherto claimed to be Ger- ! many’s most deadly weapon, but actu-

ally mastered by our fighters—has been gradually abandoned. During the second week in September only two Junkers 87’s were shot down and since then they have completely disappeared till yesterday’s convoys raid. Even the Junkers 88—the Nazis’ newest type—had been coming over in only small numbers, but the more or less complete abandonment of the use of bombers for day raiding 'did not take place till the end of September. On September 7 the Germans opened the blitzkrieg on London and lost 103 machines. On September 15 the Luftwaffe made another more desperate attempt to crash the Fighter Command defences, but lost 185 aircraft and the British Fighter Command achieved a new record for a single day’s fighting. On September 27 the Germans made one more big effort—their last. They increased the proportion of the fighter escort to four to one, but still they lost 133 aircraft, of which 91 were fighters. Because of the high cost of this form of air warfare, the Germans decided to change their tactics. Bombers visiting Britain in the daytime are now few and far between. In their place the Germans are sending highflying Messerschmitt 109 fighters carrying only a small bomb load. It can be claimed confidently that the British Fighter Command is now beating.this menace. German losses have been small compared with the old scale of slaughter, but on October 7 our fighters shot down 27 German aircraft, of which 21 were Messerschmittes ,and on Tuesday last 33 were destroyed. Even by sneaking across the coast at a great height—usually five or six miles—under cover of cloud, only one or two during a day beat the guns and fighters and reached London.