BRITISH SUPERIORITY

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21208, 3 September 1940, Page 5

BRITISH SUPERIORITY

COMPARISON OF AIR FORCES RESULT OF YEAR OF WAR OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT (Official Wireless) (Received Sept. 3, 11 a.m.) RUGBY, Sept. 2 It has been m the air that •the most serious fighting of the first year of the war has taken place, and it has been in the air, significantly enough, that Britain’s most outstanding success have been gained. In the early days of the war the Royal Air Force was mainly concerned with dawn-to-dusk escorts for convoys, the success of which was shown by the amazingly few ships which were ever attacked in convoy, and with extensive reconnaissance flights over enemy territory, extending as far as Vienna and Prague, and with overseas hunting for Üboats. To counteract to some extent the numerical superiority of the German Air Force the Royal Air Force sent to the help of the French Army and Air Force more squadrons than had been promised in the winter, and as events grew worse it more than doubled its assistance, to the extent of seriously weakening its own home defences. During the retreat the British fighter pilots found themselves from dawn to dusk carrying out six or seven sorties daily. It was during these encounters, and perhaps even more clearly during the week of terrific air battles over Dunkirk at the time of the retreat of the British Expeditionary Force that the world witnessed the superiority of the British machines and men over their German adversaries. It became clear that once the parity in striking power was attained the war in the air was won. 1500 Nazi Planes Destroyed Today the Royal Air Force’s superiority is being shown in the engagements over Britain, where during the past weeks of large-scale German raids the proportion of German machines brought down to the British has been steadily in the neighbourhood of three to one. Since June 18, when the first large-scale raids began, some 1500 German aircraft have been destroyed and probably a further 50 per cent. Even more important is the loss to Germany of such large numbers of trained flying personnel, which in the same period must amount to some 3750.

The Royal Air Force attacks night after night on military objectives in Germany, Italy, Belgium, Holland. Norway and German-occupied France have unquestioningly been causing considerable dislocation to the German industrial life and the German war machine.

Meanwhile the Empire air training scheme is in full operation and in June the first contingents of colonial and colonial-trained pilots and crews began to take part in the fight for Britain. The Empire training scheme, Empire aircraft production and the large orders placed in America for all kinds of aircraft guarantee for the future a huge supply of aircraft and crews, trained under peaceful conditions which will never be available to the enemy.