1938-09-24 — Page 11

Attack By

Air And Defence

THE type and volume of equipment routine, and separate raids by one or adopted for a nation's serial forces two machines at a time flying at a low rest largely on assumptions. Nobody altitude with the object of destroying knows with any degree of securacy the Individual targets such as power sta- relative strengths of aerial weapons.tions and arsenals. In the recent ax- For this reason, no matter how strong ercises the former type of raid was one nation may appear to be in the air completely neglected." The efficacy of as compared with another, within a our defences was proved only in regard Can such a policy be day of the outbreak of hostilities the to the latter. supposed weaker may be proved to be justified?

the stronger. Only full-scale hostilities Foriobvious reasons, the balloon bar- can determine the best tactics to em- rage system of defences played no ma- ploy in modern air war and the rela-terial part in the exercises. For pur- tive values of defensive and offensive poses of assessment, raiding bombers which flew through the positions at air weapons.

assess-

This is fully appreciated by the Air which the balloon barrage was suppos- Staffs of the various Powers, and aced to be in place were deemed to have! counts for the various fads and fan-lost one out of every four machines. cies that appear and disappear with This was an entirely unreal monotonous frequency. One day the ment as it failed to allow for the pay- fighter is thought the best means of chological deterrent to raiding at defence against the bomber; fighters heights at which disaster might be are therefore ordered in large num¬ met with at any moment. You simply bers. The next day the power of the are not going to get men to make raid fighter is relegated and the anti-air after raid on objectives which are pro- craft gun is in favour; orders for tected by this alarming invisible in- fighters are therefore curtailed and strument. Nerves cannot stand it. those for guns increased. At the same The majority of raids will therefore time it is decided that offence is the be those which were entirely neglected only means af defence in air war so by the offensive forces in the recent air above. 20,000 feet. concentration is made on bombers. And exercises-raids

Raids at low altitude on definite tar- so it goes on

gets will be the exception, and carried out by brave men who will be fully

HOPE FOR GOOD FORTUNE

Air exercises tend only to confuse the issue and to sow seeds of doubt in the minds of staff officers where a welcome sense of certainty had settled. But there is nothing to be done about it. Only guesses can be made and one can only hope that one's own country will have the good fortune to be back- ing the right horse if the hour of tra- vail arrives. The odds are so big, the weapons so diverse. Which, for in- stance, is right, France, which for its fighter planes 'relies on the heavy mo| teur-canon, which fires a comparative- ly small number of explosive shells, or

on

conscious of the suicidal nature of their task. You can always get men masse to fight a visible enemy, but it

BY-

NIGEL TANGYE

(In The "Spectator")

HEDGE-HOPPING TACTICS

John Halliday and Madeleine Carroll in" "Blockade”, starring Henry Fonda, which comes to the King's Theatre to-morrow.

Danube River's Importance Stressed By Soviet Writer

expan-

The

newspaper, organ of the Soviet Navy Commissariat, actually presents a study of the Reich's ex- pansion in the Danubian basin. Captain Gavrilov is the writer.

He points out that during the Great War, Austrian and German flotillas on the Danube played · an important part in the general plan of hostilities.

Moscow, September. 17. The strategic importance of the Great Britain, which favours six or is left to the individual volunteer class Danube is emphasized in an article, eight machine-guns firing non-explo- to risk an inevitable one-in-four chance published by the Krasny Flot, on sive bullets? The majority of French of disaster in addition to the normal the part played by that great river fighters are fitted with one or at the hazard of raiding.

in Germany's schemes of most two of these heavy guns; Great

sion. Britain has none. One country is wrong. Only war can decide which.

The main problem is confined, of It is, no doubt some comfort to being registered in the fraction of a course, to bombers and the means of know that our defences can deal with second in which it is in range are ex stopping them before they reach their these low-flying raids even though, in tremely high. And if it is spotted by

He recalls that when the Austro- objective. On this subject fresh in these exercises, they were not called a fighter, it possesses the advantage. formation has been claimed from a upon to cope with the very much more of being able to train its guns on the German forces penetrated into the study of the recent air exercises in probable high-flying raids. But some fighter, which is restricted in its. at- this country.The Press in reporting of these low raiders got through, and tack, by having to fire from a consi-Ukraine region, a flotilla of war these exercises made extravagant the method they employed has opened derable height if it is to avoid diving vessels managed to aid in operations statements on the efficacy of the de- up an entirely new conception of raid- into the ground by pulling out of its by steaming down the Danube and

into the Black Sea. fence weapons, and the assurance that ing. It was an elaboration of the dive too late.

At present, Germany is planning it had been proved that the bombers hedge-hopping raid which was often The solution of intercepting the more could not get through was almost uni-used in the Great War by bombers at probable high-flying raid is likely only

tacking enemy aerodromes near to the to be found in the continuous patrol in a canal to connect the Rhine and versal.

Was that proved? Were not these front line. It is being done frequent the 80,000-foot level by squadrons of the Danube, he points out. Captain exercises so organized that they would ly in Spain to-day. The raiders fly as fighters. When I was in Spain last Gavrilov also adds that the number inevitably put the defences in a more low as they possibly can, so that the year I had several opportunities favourable light than the raids? There defenders have no warning of their discuss the lessons that were being of locks necessitated on the canal Suddenly, over the aero-learnt among the Italian pilots of fight and the tonnage-limitations impos-

in are good reasons for these questions: approach.

ed on traffic will greatly limit the Much was made of the fact that the drome boundary the bombers appear. er planes, They were unamimous defending fighters, in almost every They fly over the hangars, drop their saying that this method of patrol was

the only one which was likely to meet importance of the project. case, were successful in intercepting bombs, and are gone.

that with any success in intercepting the In conclusion, the article claims, the raids. Yet the very great major- The recent exercises showed ity of these raids were made at heights considerable success favours a single really fast modern bomber, which ar-the presentation of these facts below 8,000-fest. Is it to be seriously bomber flying at 250 miles an hour rives, does its job, and is gone before gives evidence of the large scale of supposed that that would happen in just above the tree tops. It can reach fighters have a chance to climb up and

with intercept them. But such a method German plans for expansion and actual war? Would the fighters have it objective sixty miles inland met with such success if the majority less chance of being molested than if involves a huge number of fighters to aggression in the Danubian basin, The maintain this continuous patrol and which German Fascism wishes to of raids had been made at 20,000 feet it were flying at 10,000 feet.

make one of its principal strong- reason being that accurate warning of they will have to fly well above the o and over? -

its approach and passage is almost raiding bombers in order to have the impossible to give. If it is flying real-advantage of the preponderance of holds in war against Southeastern ly low, it is only seen by observers who speed gained from a dive. The recent orders by the Air Ministry for vast

The Reich's expansion threatens may be stationed in its direct path.

numbers of fighters appear to be along the old route, from Berlin pointer towards the future adoption of

to Bagdad and Soviet Russia.!? such tactics.

MASSED RAIDS ON CITIES.

LOW-FLYING ADVANTAGES

To the contention that bombers are unlikely to raid at this height, because accuracy of bombing is reduced thereby, I would answer that there are likely to

It is too low for any anti-aircraft be two types of raiding in the next war; massed raids on cities at a great gun to fire at, and if it has the mis- height with no more object than the fortune to fly directly over a machine- disorganization of social and business gun nest the odds against a fatal hit

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