THE AIR FACTOR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 May 1941, Page 5

THE AIR FACTOR

AN INFORMATIVE ADDRESS THE GERMAN ADVANTAGE IN CRETE, v POSSESSION OF NUMEROUS BASES ON MAINLAND. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, May 22. Air Commodore Goddard in a broadcast speech today said: "The Germans are storming Crete, and you will have heard the news that once again our air forces have been withdrawn. I think you will have thought, Ts not it curious that we cannot keep our air forces in action because of insufficient aerodromes, whereas the Germans have no such difficulty?' “That is merely a reflection of air superiority. The Germans can operate from relatively secure aerodromes and can fill them up with hundreds of aeroplanes. We cannot disperse to numerous aerodromes, because they do not exist. Now the air-borne forces are on their greatest trial, but they are unopposed by fighters. In spite of that, they have had some costly failures, but they have apparently also had some substantial success. Grim it is, and grim it must be; but never fear. Air-borne forces by themselves will not capture that island. There is more lo it than that. The defence of Crete, as far as we are concerned, must be mostly the business of the soldiers and sailors, and how splendidly they are doing it, too! Our Air Force, meanwhile, is building up again in the Middle East, and it will give ah the help it can from there. "Whatever is the outcome, this invasion of Crete instead of Britain is in truth a measure of the Nazi frustration. I will not deny that air-borne forces are a menace to us here, but so is bur Fighter Command to them. And the Fighter Command constitutes, as you have reason to know, the most powerful defensive system in the world. "Please do not suppose that some new and unexpected danger to us has just emerged. The fact is that a great part of the known danger to us here is now lying wrecked in Crete. We are prepared for air-borne forces, so do not let us make too much of a bogey of them. “I expect you know why flic Germans use gliders. Troop-carrying aeroplanes must have an aerodrome or country like an aerodrome to land on. If they do not they crash or are stranded and are unable to get away again. The .gliders, being low-flyers, can got down in a smaller space, and if they escape attack they can land in compact forces with their equipment ready for action. “The paratroops are almost sure to get scattered if they use them in large numbers, and they are greatly hampered by their kit. it is their job to secure, temporarily at any rale, the place where the gliders are to come in, and this they do cither by surprise or else by immediately following a heavy blitz on the place.” Air Commander Goddard concluded by saying that the British effort against Germany had been doubled in recent weeks, and would go on increasing.