1939-09-05 — Page 8

Page 8:

MODERN AIR WARFARE

DECENT

ESPIONAGE

The air armaments race is therefore a better machine? If he thus achieves held up for some time. 'A' speed of a long-term superiority?

120 to 150 meters per second is. the A long-term superiority? The Span- marked characteristic of this stage of ish war has shown that military military, aviation, in which the. per-secrets in so far as the air force is fecting of armament and material will concerned are not long secrets. Where- be the first duty of the technician. as the rate at which improvements, The modern air weapon has there- innovations, inventions etc. take place fore attained a certain degree of per- is considerably slower, that of the ad- fection. The danger of continual ob-justment of the enemy air fleets in solescence, is accordingly diminished. Spain has been speeded up, from the For war technique is not a changing point of view of quality. fashion,

A kind of discreet espionage has But herewith the provision for the emerged of itself. A new enemy pur- serial construction of modern war ma-suer appears on the horizon. Imme-, chines appears to be assured. Air diately, the intelligence service of the armaments are no longer- the result of air defence comes into play. The

THE CHINA MAIL, SEPTEMBER 5, 1939.

By W. H. RINGS KELL

“Katiuska”—The Russian 'prototype of the Italian bomber BR-20.

a pure hasard.. Who stakes, wins. speed of the new type is recorded, its This is doubtless one of the most va-silhouette photographed, each obser- is shot down or forced to land. A taught how to protect war production luable lessons of the Spanish air war. vation is noted. The home pursuers special salvage service conveys what effectively?

A lesson that may be criticised by are on the alert.

remains of the plane to the rear, A Republican Spain, as is wellknown, the sceptic: "but-if the enemy Invents Then comes the first fight. A plane few hours later, and the engineers was compelled by circumstances to have unravelled the secret of the buildup a war industry. Planes were enemy. And but a short time passes constructed on foreign models. And before the enemy's new inventions, are the curious experience was gained that applied to the home planies.

in a country with a backward indus- And even that diabolical German try and without industrial knowledge, device for exploding a damaged Mes- machines could be built that outpaced serschmidt, plane in the air, with or their foreign models by 12 km. per without its pilot, to prevent it from hour.

BARCLAY'S

IN

ADAMME

LAGER

CANS

falling into enemy hands, failed. The The production centres of Catalonia secret of the new ME 109 was only were systematically. bombed by the kept for a few days. A well organis- notionalist air force. For the question ed observation service with its clever was not only to block the Mediter- engineers is just as important as an ranean coast, but also to destroy or air fleet..

paralyse the young and fast develop- For new inventions are very soon ing industry of the enemy. The pro- known to everybody. War secrets tection of the industry seemed an in- only remain so for a few days. Modern extricable problem. There were air war is more and more à conflict neither sufficient pursuers not enough

1

BARCLAY

BP

&COLTO

EXPOR

PILSNER LAGER

BARCLAY

BREWED & CANNED AT THE BREWERY

* PRODUCE

OF GREAT BRITAIN,

& CO LTD

DONFLUGILAND

ENGLAND'S BEST BEER

OVER

BREWED IN ENGLAND FOR 250 YEARS BY BRITISH BREWMASTERS

GILMAN & CO., LTD., Sole Agents

MUTT AND JEFF

THIS IS NO CINCH "TRYIN' TO KEEP AN 'ESKIMOFAMILY COOL IN THIS HEAT!

WANT UM SUMDROPS!

JEFF, DID YOU FIND A PLACE WHERE THE ESKIMOS CAN SLEEP?)

DID 12

I SURE DID! AND CHEAP TOO!

TWO BITS A

NIGHTY

JU 52/3m: Three-engine Junkers bomber. (surpassed by the Italian 8 81).

with equal weapons. In this case, anti-air guns to defend all factories production, not aviation, will be res ponsible for the decision.

effectively. And they lay within the range of the enemy air fleet.

THE W. R OF PRODUCTION

The duration of resistance depended Lloyd George's words "Modern war upon the solution of this problem. is a-war of production" are more, than Even towards the end of 1938, the pic- over true to-day. Production. is more ture offered by Catalonia was. appal- important than the effectives of the ling. Along the coast, there was army and the air fleet. The life of an hardly a factory that had not been air engine is generally limited to 1000 partly or completely destroyed by flight hours. The loss of machines in bombs, fight or through accident is enormous. When General Franco's troops ad- Production is decisive for victory or vanced upon Barcelona, the question of the Republican war production

defeat.

It must therefore not only be organ- seemed likely to be solved in a few have been ised, but protected from destruction weeks. Munition could through the enemy air forces. Russla manufactured for 50 different calibers and the United States have defended and independence from abroad have their centres of production by situat- been secured in the next three weeks, ing them at a great distance from any if the Catalonia front had not broken potential front. No enemy plane down at that time. The emergency could over-fly these centres. But for solution found for the problem lay in France and England this is a serious the organisation of a system of work- problem.

shops.

The Spanish air war has shown that no country need hesitate to arm; the modern military plane will not soon be obsolete. Has the Spanish war also

MARKET

The The name speaks for itself. centres of production and large fac-

tories were replaced by a large num- (Continued on page 23)

ICE BOX

By BUD FISHER