DEBT OWED TO ENGINEERS

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21220, 17 September 1940, Page 4

DEBT OWED TO ENGINEERS

What Britain owes to its engineers, scientists and strategists for fighting efficiency in this and other wars can never be calculated. All the “ surprises ” that may be launched by their opposite numbers in enemy countries must be investigated and countered, and they themselves must seek advantages from inventing and operating new machines and new methods of defence or offence. How well British experts have succeeded is becoming history every day. It is not by accident that counters for enemy moves are found; it is the result of work at high pressure by men behind the guns who seldom appear in the public eye. They are nevertheless amongst the most effective of Britain’s defenders

Instances of ingenious inventions which had to be produced during the heat of war are not difficult to find. One of the most notable and effective was the “ degaussing ” process which was the means of preventing untold wreckage of Britain’s mercantile marine. Had scientists and engineers not discovered the means of making ships unresponsive to the lure of the mines Britain today might have been in a parlous position. The magnetic mine was perhaps Hitler’s greatest “surprise” weapon; today that particular class of mine lies more or less harmless on the bottom of the sea.

More recently, air raids have given cause for constant research and experiment. Germany alternated between day and night raiding. Improvements in machines and flying technique have gone a long way towards making daylight raids too costly to be continued for long. To counter night raiders has been a much more difficult problem. The balloon barrages have recently been greatly improved, however, and anti-aircraft guns are being operated to such effect that fewer and fewer raiders are finding it possible to penetrate into the central London area. The tale of what engineers and scientists have done to make Britain a fortress impregnable against all forms of attack will one day be told. In the meantime it is for the most part being kept a dark secret—a secret which is no doubt a powerful deterrent to the enemy across the Channel, who is obviously reluctant to risk prying intimately into Britain’s defences.