THE CHINA MAIL, MARCH 19, 1941.
NEW PREDICTOR ENVOY'S
FOR A.A. IS 'ABSOLUTE KILLER'
(By A Special Correspondent)
THE COMMANDER of a corps area of A.A. defence has given some particulars of the organisa- tion of A.A. batteries and searchlights, and told of his hopes for the future.
More raiders are shot down than are claimed, I was informed, and we are on the way to doing much better. There is no reason why, as things are developing, 10 per cent. of raiding aircraft should not be scotched.
At present, according to the evidence, the ma- jority of the casualties, among night raiders oc- cur in crashes on the landing-grounds.
Semchlights, and AA gun, keep | the Gesmans 445
Areater height than the RAFA #tenteral altitudes in Germany Bombers are now panted with a matt black paint. which refle
tandin
of light, but searchlights deter and deflect machines. man when the searchlight crew does not realise that the beam has caught them.
The light render the bomber
Visable to the chasing fighter
though on the ground nothing canl
CANNON
ATTACK ON
AIR BASES
R.A.F. May Try New Method
Experimental opera- tions, consisting of a low-
be seen of what is happening. flying attack with cannon The pubile, said the commander, fire, may be undertaken used the word "bairage" rather You loosely. A true barrage was very rurely brought into play.
formation on a special form of ground attack.
It was wildly extravagant, and; by its very nature meant a waste
of ammunition. Occasions aros. for the use of a barrage, but for less often than the public {used,
Nazis Lack Variety
DISGUISE
AS PEASANT
Escape From Nazis
Sir William Max-Muller, a former British Minister to Poland, has described how M. Lipski, Polish Am- bassador to Germany
when the war broke out, escaped from the Ger- mans after the fall of France in the guise of a French peasant.
Speaking at the weekly Over- Seas League luncheon, Sir Wil- liam said that M. Lipski tramped over 300 miles through Germad lines in decupied Franes and then on through unoccupied France to Marseilles. From there he passed through Spain and Portugal to Lisbon, and eventualy arrived in England, where he joined the Polish army as a private,
it
Another anedote related by Str William was of the wife of Poush General who was in War- saw when the Germans arrived |and travelled through Germany for 10 days with an American- Russian, posing as his wife They were held
up at Aix, and the General's wife was interrogated for three-quarters of an hour by a German official befine they were allowed to proceed.
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This type of raid is different from that reported as having been carried out in daylight by Polish pilots in fighters equipped
with machine-guns. The theory
be-
hind it is based on the belief that, with modern methods of aircraft dispersal, an aerodrome is not
It is thought that the ma- chine-gun does not hit hard en- ough to put aircraft out of action with any certainty.
More Cannon Fighters
the expressed the opinion that German raiding tarties were Jack-❘ ing in variety. When a prelimin-¦ readily damaged by bombing. ary wave of machines loaded with fire-bombs was employed thesel were manned by exceptionally ex- perienced crews--the pick of the. German bombing furce. The lat er waves, which came with high explosive bombs, represented far less able and less daring men,
Fire-fighting. the commander urged, was of paramount impor- tance in defence. If, for instance, an accumulation of timber were caught by fire-bomb raiders the efforts of many batteries were nul- lifted.
To appreciate the measure of success already reached by
the ground defences it was neces- sary to know how often raiders had been deflected from vital
new
British
with
Nearly #11 the fighters can be equipped cannon, Equipment for both Spit- fires and Hurricanes carrying can- non has been in production for some time, and the number of can- non fighters in service is dully in- !creasing.
These machines might, if is thought, be able to do severe damage to enemy air bases by low-flying attacks. The cannon chell used by the British ma- chinco is capable of wrecking an aircraft with a single hit.
military objectives. The commander paid a great tri- bute to the spirit and endurance of the searchlight and gun teams --men living, as he put it, "in penny packets," more often than not in dreary, out-of-the-1. By places, and spending whole te been good, as the operations glued to their job.
August and September demon-
It is believed that British figh- ter defences, which have always
THOUGHT
Predictors are playing a very strated, are now stronger. important part in aur defente, and ¦ one which we see Ow using is deserbed as an abin ute kiler," Our two chief weapt for meet- ing gh-flying aureraft re the 3.7in gun, which fires a round. and the 4.5in gun, which Tires a 55Ib have a "celling" which is higher) than the bomber can at prevent reach.
28.
roundi They buth NAZI WAS
R.A.F. MAN
Coventry Denial
07
Rumours that we ran out ammunition for the A.A. guns nt
of
Sapper Leonard Evington, a
Hull dock worker, has been told
Coventry you can deny categor- that he had been awarded the me-
dal of the Order of the
British
cally." I was told. "Guns were aring there for 11 hours consecu- Empire for rescuing a Nazi pilot after swimming nearly half a mile in average of 10 rounds a minute in Folkestone harbour.
tively, and one gun she fired
throughout that period."
His main concern was
that
The A.A. command works in the everyone should understand that closest cooperation with the R.A.F. Fighter Command, and the
he thought he was going to the as- sistance of a British airman.
He
system of dual control is held to said that he heard someone shout, have justified itself. Such faults! "There is a Spitfire down in the
as have occurred are to be pul harbour," and he stripped without
a
down to rapidity of expansion questioning the statement. rather than to the system.
"I was really disappointed when When loaded folder, is hit I got there and found he was there is little left to be salvaged. Nazi," he added. "The German One heavy bomber blew up into was a big man, about 15 or 18 such small fragments that the stone. He was a blt weak and largest objects · retrieved, were tried to make a gráb at me as I an identity disc and a cigarette- | was coming up to him.
"I was a bit wary and swam The commander wound up by round him at first. When a boat saying that some of the best came up I helped to get him on scientific minds in the country board,” were concentrating on the defeat Evington is 31 and the father of of "the unseon target."
three children,
case.
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