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W. 760
WEEKLY LONDON LETTER
By Andrew Black.more.
The Biggest Air Exercise.
Early in August Britain put to the test her vast organisat- ion for protection against air attack. The results were most reassuring. In a review of the various reports from observers Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding said. "I confidently believe that serious air attacks on Britain would be brought to a standstill within a very short space of time."
The mimic air war, the biggest air exercise ever staged in Britain, raged for three days over a battle area of fifty thousand square miles.
More than 53,000 men, 1,300 air craft, 110 guns, 700 searchlights, and 100 balloons were engaged in the operations. (The se numbers, of course, ac not represent anything like the total resources of the country) Bombing fleets made about 700 day and night raids at the average rate of ten en hour throughout the exercises.
O
Heavy rain hampered the effectiveness of the raiders, though
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a visibility of a mere 1,000 yards proved no real deterrent. feats of pilotage and navigation performed by young pilots, many of whom are under 21 years of age, may be appreciated by a considerat- ion of the fact that bombers, in 1,000 yards visibility conditions, travelling at 240 miles an hour, had their norizon bounded by 9 seconds flight. The 360 miles an hour fighters reached the limit of their outlock at any given time in only six seconds.
The three most striking features of the exercises were the efficiency of the pilots and navigators of the long-distance bombing squadrons; the precision with which the observer corps and the sound- locater crews and searchligt sections carried out their work; and the speed with which fighter machines engaged raiders when the latter had been located by the searchlights.
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