MODERN AIR WARFARE
"The German air weapon is the strongest in the world”
THE CHINA MAIL, AUGUST 30, 1939 By W. H. RINGS-KELL
FEATS OF GERMAN AND
said Field Marshal Goering ITALIAN PLANES IN SPAIN
on "German Air Force Day."
Of twelve types of German bomb- ing planes, three obsolete · Junkers types and one Gotha machine proved unusable and were later completely withdrawn from Spain. Three further types (Focke-Wulf FW68 A, Dornier be withdrawn completely from the come up to. requirements, five of the DO. 18 and Henschel HS 122), whose Was he speaking as a politi-front or to be used in quieter parts of Italian types can be utilized in the top speed did not exceet: 235 km. per cian or as a soldier? Should the line for less exposed reconnoitring first line. It is true that the Ger-hour had also bo withdrawn to quieter services. Only 12% of the German mans, with their five second-class and unexposed parts of the front, these words be regarded as
types came up to the requirement im types, outnumber the Italians with where they were utilised for scouting mere propaganda or as the posed upon a modern military plane in their two machines of a medium cate- services and occasional attacks upon modern air warfare. 23% of the Ger- gory; but their proportion of un- undefended objectives. 60% of the dispassionate statement of a man types proved mediocre in quality, usable machines-six-if compared German bombing types had therefore
the four Italian types which failed at the very first test. fact generally accepted and i.e. only utilizable in the second line with
under the protection of better ma-proved absolutely unsuitable, is far Then came the experimental period. admitted?
From reliable chines or on quieter fronts where they greater.
useful material Recognised defects are more were not likely to be exposed to gathered by the various Intelligence than presumed, unproved qualities. counter-attacks from first-class enemy Services during the war and now The Spanish sky thus became the la- planes.
published for the first time, it is clear boratory of modern air warfare. that 45% of the Italian planes and GOOD AVERAGE MATERIAL only 15% of the German are first class When on May 1st, 1938, the German conferred the German and that 45% of the German and 35% Chancellor of the Italian types must be consider- "Nobel Prize" on two wellknown air- ed as unusable.
plane constructors, the name of Jun- First
kers was not mentioned. His competi- Class Medium Unusable tors,. Heinkel and Messerschmidt, were more successful. For, in the Spanish (about) 15% 40% 45%
merely war, Junkers' bombers had 45% 15% 35%
achieved a good average. "CASTLES IN SPAIN"
In France and England, there has been a tendency to exaggerate the value of the German air fleet. This has led to sharp criticism in 'certain quarters with regard to the air arma- ment of these two countries. Is such, criticism founded? Is it true that the German fleet is really the strongest and the best in the world and years in advance of the British and the French?
Even if one excludes a series of old er German types sent to the Peninsula during the first months of the war, of which the German General Staff itself did not expect anything in the way of success, it must be said that the experience gained with the num- erous modern German machines in Germany During thirty months of modern air the fleld is extremely unsatisfactory. war in Spain, the German air force, If one compares the thirteen most re- Italy which had far more prototypes in the cent German types with the eleven Peninsula than the Italians, recorded best Italian types, it is quite clear that considerable number of failures. in quality the Italian aviation far out- 65% of all German prototypes sent to weighs the German. For whereas Spain failed altogether and had either only two of the thirteen German types
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"Our future is on the high seas" de- clared the Ex-Emperor William II, when persuaded by Admiral von Tir- pitz at the beginning of the century that the German submarine fleet would give Germany the victory in a world war within the short space of a few weeks. To-day General Goering, in no less emphatic terms, proclaims to an equally menaced world that "the German future is in the air". Tirpitz's submarines are now Goering's bomb- ing planes.
Up to the conquest of the northern Spanish provinces by General Franco's troops, 80 Junkers bombing planes Type JU 52 were shot down by the
Mr. W. H. Rings-Kell, was cor- respondent in Spain during the whole of the civil war. He was perhaps the only Journalist in a position to study the material collected by the military Intelli- gence Services with regard to the first modern air war.
This is the first time that this Information, hitherto secret, has been published. Five further ar- ticles in this series will be pu- blished from to-morrow.
With the help of a modern offen- sive air fleet in a "lightning" cam- paign of destruction, it is proposed to wipe out the enemy before he can be- gin to mobilise his war potential. A mass attack of heavy bombing planes is to be launched against the first troop concentrations of the enemy, to prevent the use of such forces and to very inferior Republican air force on reduce their fighting value to a mini-
the Basque and Asturian fronts alone. mum, while fast bombers carry
Type JU 86, which was regarded as out surprise attacks upon junctions, cen-
an improvement on the somewhat ob- tres of mobilisation, industrial re-results. The top speed was increased solete JU 52, already achieved better gions, etc., in order to disorganise the from 340 to 373 km. per hour and the
mechanism of the enemy, the failure of which would coast him the cruising. speed from 310 to 358. But first defensive positions on the front.
even this machine which, like all mo- In a socalled "total war"-in
dern types, has collapsible landing which the enemy rear is just
wheels, gradually disappeared from as much a military objective as the front, the the Spanish front and had to be uti- fate of war being
lised for scouting services, for, with decided in the
the former rather than the latter-heavy Spanish air war, it was impossible to
the increasing modernisation of bombers with three engines and fast affect other than first class types to two-engine planes, which suddenly over the enemy territory and carry out their action, are therefore indis-bomber JU 52/3 m-a flying monster The heavy three-engine Junkers pensable weapons.
war
future?
FIRST EXPERIMENTS IN SPAIN
the first line.
Does Germany possess this first class of highly developed destructive capa- bombing material that would enable city-is perhaps the only Junkers ma- her to wage a "total war" in the near(strongly protected). It has,
chine that can be used on the front how- ever, been seen in Spain that this ma- (cruising As long as the Spanish air war was speed: 200 km. per hour), its inade-
chine, with its low speed virtually unilateral, even the most obsolete bombing plane was regarded quate defensive armament (only two as a terrible weapon with enormous of action (880 to 915 km.) can only machine guns) and its limited range possibilities of destruction. As in Abyssinia, it was thought that the war ment of first class pursuers and thus be operated if convoyed by a detach- would be decided in the air. The ab- sence of even the most primitive means of defence against air raids on the Republican side enabled any type of German bomber to dominate the situation.
The modern air war began on No- vember 11th, 1936 in the fourth month of the war.
On that sunny winter day, the inhabitants of Madrid watch- ed from streefs, balconies and roofs the first sharp air battle of the Span- ish war. Bombers crashed, pursuers fell in flames, black smoke clouds darkened the gardens round the capital. The heavy thrumming of dozens of three-engine bombers vied with the machine-gun rattle of the fighting pursuers; parachutes were opened; the first victims of the Span- Ish air war swayed to the ground. The selection had begun.
cannot be utilised for the more distint partisans of the total war theory is a parts of the enemy rear. This for the serious defect and explains why this type also received no prize.
a
The more successful airplane con- structor, Heinkel, had, it is true, setback with his one-engine scouting and bombing plane HE 70 in Spain- with a top speed 335 km. per hour and absolutely inadequate defensive equipment, one could not advise one's a modern worst enemy to approach pursuer in a HE 70-but at any rate, Heinkel only supplied one of the had to be rejected or to be classified eleven German bombing types that
as "good average material".
World copyright 1939 by Co- OPERATION. Reproduction even partially strictly forbidden.
By BUD FISHER
JIGGERS, MUTT, THE BOBB!
SAY! WHAT RE
YOU GUYS DOIN'?)
HEY, MUTT! WE FORGOT THE LADDER!