1940-09-20 — Page 19

Friday,

HONGKONG TELEGRAPH

September 20, 1940.

DONALD DUCK

FISHING

OTY PORES!

THROW OUT THE ANCHOR, BOYS

THIS IS THE FISHIN' HOLE!

HEY, YOU! SCRAM! CAN'T Y READZ

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HE WAS MAD, UNCA DONALD !

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BY BASIL CARDEW

Special Air Reporter

AIR CHIEF MARSHAL SIR HUGH CASWALL

TREMENHEERE DOWDING, beribboned, waste-no-time chief of the Fighter Command, is now No. 1 keyman in the Royal Air Force..

Dowding, lifty-eight, spare, exacting, works it out that his fighters help to shoot down thirteen enemy aircraft every twenty-four hours, and wing

a further seven,

Now Dowding "Stuffy" throughout the R.A.F.-- counts on two main assets for which may thene successes alter the whole tempo of the war and they are known as two big M--metal and men tality.

In seeking to reason why our machines stand the pare and outfight the Nazis in al- most every battle, let us denl with metal first.

THE German Air Force use machines with a life of Afty flying hours. That is as long as they are made to last, and the Germana

it is sound нау economy to send them back then to the melting-pot.

Actually, the planes have to go back because of metal futi- gue. Through using weaker

the Germans find materials, their planes get "Lired" far sooner than the British.

It is quick, though. this melting-pot process. In re- their markably short time planes are stripped.of the en- gines, dismantled and thrown into the melting caudron to be shaped again for another day.

The weakness is that an air force built on these principles is always half in the melting- pot, compared with a third of an air force which is usually considered to be grounded for repairs or reconditioning.

And another trouble is that .even if an enemy warplane doesn't meat a British fighter or a well-sighted A.A. gun, it cannot be used for more than half a dozen hattering trips over Britain..

This is the price the Ger- mans pay for mass-produced, stamped-qutwarplanes, made as if in a sausage. factory.

NOW how does the fighter air chief marahal (Sir Hugh). lino: It Pupa with our own metalst

A British warplane is built for a fighting life of approxi- mately 260 hours. Then it is tu med over for training pur, poses for a further 250 hours.

Bul it also has a three- hour ground inspection after sixty dying hours, a half-day overhaul at the end of 120 hours, and when it has been in the air for 220 hours the ground staff give it a whole. day Once-over, which

is a thorough business.

This seems to be sounder eronomy in the long run.

Because a British warplane is a handmade job. built with the world's best metals, it can do this long service with 100 per cent. of safety.

GOERING'S aircraft AIT in No way handmade. His paper. planes are good on Even when the first were made they were good. Four hundred miles an hour for the fighters and more than 300 for the bombers. Everything right, nothing to fear.

But unfortunately for the Nazi pilots, these planes were only the prototypes. They were the first show models.

Now they are in mass pro-

Performance duction.

IN nothing like the same, nor safety. The planes coming from the sausage machines often fall or shake apart when

is throttle opened. Others

flutter from wing tip to wing tip ke, the eyelids of a Vic- torian awooner.

Anyway, they give the Gor- man pilots a pretty rough time and combats become a losing hazard.

Sir Hugh Dowding, who flies his own plane, ranks this M for metal high indeed, and it has a lot to do with the other M-mentality of his boys who do the fighting. The boys say: "It's half the fight to have a good plane. Makes 'you feel you've won before it's begun."

DOWDING is proud of the way the R.A.F. mentally equip his crews who fly the planes. A first-class British pilot coats the country about £10,000. That includes his training and pay. Sounds rather high, but the cost of training a first- class pilot is averaged out with three other boys in the

L.D.V.S Want To

Know

DO WE SALUTE?

THAT are the ranks

W of L.D.V. officers and

N.C.Os and how will they be recognised? What is the lowest rank that will he paid the compliments given to a Regular Army officer?

F

ANSWEIL LDV ranks on- set of ennuyers of buttals- platoona, groups, and seellons, with their deputies They will have "hats" on the shoulder, and possibly distinctive budges when these aze issued. There no ruling about salute, ele It is left to volgutinations bu make thell over

Jol

W

UVIY have in granla yet been. made to the L.D.Va? Doen realise that the Government

who, after their day's work, are giving hard-earned leisure willingly to the nation's defence are paying for it out of their own pockels?

ANSWER Yes, the Govern- ment dues, The point in the Home Guard consists of volun- leers of wirem It is expected that they will be willing to pay out-of-pocket ex- own sen for a cup sf lea in the mkidle of the night or a snack If they need it

the

11m who have to use thele cars are getting a mileague al- hwance according to hp. 3d a 42110 for over 10 bp 117147 extra petrol coupons

But the question of a grant la the 1. 15 Vs for general purposes. is being looked into

learning

Between stages. them they may write-off two be trainer aircraft, it may

more.

On the same principle t costs £5,000 to produce a good air gunner, radio opera- tor or navigator. So a bom- ber, costing £30,000, with two pilots and three other crew. means a capital outlay of £65,- When the bomber costs 000. only £20,000, as many do, the whole is valued at £65,000.

Fighters are cheaper. The pilot still costs £10,000, but he is alone in the cockpit, and of the plane with the price

total is about £7,500 the £17,500.

STAKING all on numbers. the Nazis don't attempt to train their men so carefully. and quickly Cheap machines versed air crews, please, they say.

That is why the German air crews captured in the last few weeks average only twen- ty years of age. Compare them with the R.A.F. boys who feature in the news. Ninety per cent. of them joined the service long before the war. Boys I know called from the reserve last Septem- ber-good boys, too--are still waiting for an action.

Painstaking, and a little slow, perhaps, but as Dowding knows 90 well--when hie planes do go into fight his men have got those two big M's and half the battle won.

With them Britain needs no equality in numbers to be equal to or even superior to Marshal Goering's air force.

WE BETTER

GO!

PHOOEY! WHAT CAN HE

DO ABOUT ITE

By Walt Disney

NO

FISHING CITY POWER COMPANY

PAGE

HOW'S FISHIN', FALZ

WHERE FRENCH GENERALS FAILED

NFORMATION from

impression that whereas the Germans have greatly deve loped the art of war, and in particular have thought out replies to their own tactis of defence in depth, the French had stood still ar Actually deteriorated in tactics siner 1918.

Attack, defence, use of artillery. reconnaissance-in every field, according to these French criticisms, was to be found a lack of imagination.

evon Initiative, and which a certain inferiority in equipment appeared to justify only in a minor degree.

energy.

This Information is of par- ticular interest as it deals with sectors in which the Germans did not employ tanka, most of what has been published hav- ing been on the subject of tank Lactics.

was in

A might be expected, the Ger- by mana prepared their attacks careful air and ground ob;

observation: where they brought novelty to this task

the boldness of their listening posts, who sometimes con- nected telephone cable to that of the French, and of their recon- noitring patrols, who studied poa- sible channels for future intra- tion and learned the dispositions and habits of the defence.

Infiltration began the night before the attack, patrols of three men with a light ma- chine-gun passing between the French posts by the passages previously reconnaitred.

Al down the artillery opened s intense Exxmbardment Tasting which the during several hours. elements of infiltration penetrated still farther, and the Fench tele- phone system, both lateral and from front to rear, was cut.

The fire of the light machine- guns which look the French posts funk and even in rear guve the garrisons the Impression that neigh- bouring units had been driven back themselves were and that they surrounded. If they then fell back, the elements of infitration follow- ed and burassed them.

an

1, on the other hand, they cunt-

Kround, tinued to hold their attack in force was launched. On a given signal the artillery long- thened range and the assault troops udvanced in dense formations with- out even troubling to make use of o! the elementa ground, while

to make Infiltration endeavoured

their heads the defenders keep down.

*

The attackers, following their principle of 1918, flowed through the gaps, but halted in front of points of re- sistance.

In these circumstances the French garrisons of the strong points often retired to avoid being surrounded. Those which continued to resist were reduced at nightfall by mor- tar fire, generally incendiary if the centre of resistance were a village. It was found that in practice these litle contres of resistance had ellect in holding up the forward flow of the attack through the gaps. To some French officers it ap- peared that they had been betrayed by the dogma of defence in depth and that a continuous line, however ́have served weakly held, would them better. "From the point of view of moral," it is stated, "sol~ diers inevitably fight better when they know that there are no gaps on their right or left."

X

But the same observer has just been telling us how ad- mirably the Germans fought

when there were gaps, huge gaps, on either flank,

We

Fr

This argument, indeed, falla to the ground when

further Informed that continuotas line would serve only against Infantry uttack and that against tanics dis. positions shoulci always ቴpr In depth

How is the defeace to know that tanks have not been brought up during the might? No, whatever system be adopted. 11 must serve equally well against elther tanks or Infantry. It seems, indeed, that the French did not fully compre bened the Gernuu tactles which they strove to knitate

Though

defence is zonal, nut luem, the Germans have af- waya recognized that there must be a line somewhere to check infiltra- tion, to profret the artillery, to serve as ʼn rallying position, to act as the objective of counter-attack, and if pensible to provide an anti- tank barrier. This line was found in 1017 and 1918 in the Hinden- burg Line or its equivalent; it was represented in 1939-40 in the "main fighting line" of the West Wall.

Some

In the lutter case It consisted of emcrete anti-tank obstacles, iron chevaux de frise of which sections clung to the tank and were carried along with it, and of a tank line of dilch. In open warfare a this fort would have to be im- provised and would not be nearly

it would

always so strong, but

xist

Everything in front of that main fighting line formed the outpost zone. This also was protected, but only by the barbed-wire fence so familiar In the last War.

Hostile infiltration into his zone did not amount to anything very serious, but even that could be checked by the active patrolling of the outpost battalion.

It is an admission of weakness and lack of Initiative if it be taken for granted that hostile patrols of three men are at liberty to prowl about the outpost zone as though they owned it while the garrison sits in Its strong points, which in such a scheme of defence belle their name.

Were such tactics to be practised against Australian troops holding would be a similor sector they pleased by the heaven-sent oppor- tunity to collect prisoners without trouble.

The reasons for the German kuc- cess in the instances recorded are to be found not only in their own boldess and skill but also in the Inertia of the French, which is summed up in the sentence: "The French defence was purely static und passive."

We also learn that neither in platoons, battalions, nor regiments were resources available for counter-attack when the enemy had succeed. ed in penetrating the defen- sive position.

The reason is doubtless to be found in the widely extended fronts held by French regiments in the Buttle of France, but it is fatal not however to relain some reserve, weak the effectives. It is also re- ported that the French either had no fares or did not use them.

The Germans, us always, em- ployed them profusely. In broad daylight the elements of filtration signalled their progress with white flares and by night whole German front recalled a display of fre-

works.

It is stated that in the counter- offensive the French made no at- tempt to carry out infiltration ofther before or during the assault. Their conception of an infantry attack, when no tanks were avaliable, was a simultaneous and continuous ad- vance on the whole front by all the attacking forces.

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