BOMBING TACTICS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 June 1941, Page 5

BOMBING TACTICS

RELIANCE ON NEW TYPES OF AIRCRAFT INCREASE IN EFFECTIVE LOAD. STRONG FORCES USED. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, June 26. Discussing Britain’s bombing policy and the suggestion that the present is a golden opportunity to “send everything we- have got and bomb Germany out of the war,” an air expert, writes that British policy is planning ahead. It was dictated as much by the Ministry of Economic Warfare as by the actual war chiefs and its steady 'growth was being felt more and more by Germany's war industries. Night after night British bombers, sometimes the new Sterlings and perhaps Manchesters and Halifaxs, roar over the enemy’s territory to drop a weight of bombs' which is now at least > three times as great as that dropped on Germany last autumn. With these new aircraft a much heavier bomb load is carried, and in proportion to the weight of bombs dropped fewer aircraft arc required. If Britain threw everything that would fly into these raids her attacks would prove a tragedy in regard to the rate of loss she would be bound to sustain. As it is, there is a noticeable falling off in the percentage of casualties, while those German raiders which come over the British Isles are suffering a far higher percentage of loss. Because of Britain’s daylight sweeps, German fighter strength in northern France has had to be increased, and judging by the results there has been a marked deterioration in the quality of the enemy’s fighter pilots. On occasions our night offensives compare very favourably in weight and numbers with some of the heaviest enemy raids on Britain. Britain, is now using hundreds of planes where she used to use tens. Recent Air inistry communiques describing the heavy raids which the Royal Air Force has been making during each of the past 13 nights on the industrial heart of Germany have frequently stated that the raids were carried out by a “strong force.” Authoritative quarters state that such a force would comprise anything from 250 to 400 bombers.