CAB80-8 — Page 188

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(i) Current wastage should be based on the consideration of what reduction in cncny air effort should be attempted. In this respect a loss of 2,000 aircraft per month is considered a reasonable hypothesis, regardless of the theatre of war in which enemy air action takes place. In the higher strata of the atmosphere defence is a joint responsibility of fighters and A. A. runs Against low flying attack reliance for the most part must be placed on the 40 101 equipment and balloons. If the enemy finds the higher strata too hot for him he will presumably attack at low altitudes and vice versa. Hence provision should logically be made to destroy 2,000 aircraft at high or alternatively at low altitudes. With regard to high altitudes it is assumed that the guns might destroy 700 out of the 2,000, the remainder falling to the fighters. This is intended merely as a basis of argument and not as an attempt to assess the relative merits of the two weapons of defence. The problem as regards ammunition wastage is thus to make provision for the destruction of 700 aircraft by heavy A. A. runs and 2000 by light A. A. weapons,per month. Assuming that 500 rounds of heavy A. A. ammunition is required to destroy an aircraft and that the corresponding figure for light weapons is 200, the maximum monthly requirements will be :-

Heavy A. A. Light A. A.

350,000 400,000

(ii) In addition provision must be made to hold a munition at each individual gun and also contigious to it for immediate reinforcement. This may conveniently be regarded as a "capital" holding of amunition designed to meet the 'contingency of sustained attack in any given area, thereby ensuring the Maintenance of the defence until further ammunition can be made available.

• A.

The scale for "capital" ammunition as defined above must vary, as for instance in the case of ports abroad, which cannot readily be replenished Apart fronthese exceptional instances, it is considered that a flat rate of 1200 R. P. G. for heavy and 1500 for light guns is reasonable.

5. Conclusions

(i) It will be convenient to summarize ammunition requirements on this basis and compare them with the latest Ministry of Supply forecasts :- (The detailed calculations are given in Paras. 8 to 14 of Appendix A attached).

Revised War Office Estimates

Ministry of Supply Forecasts

Type of Gun

Total Requirements to Z + 24 (thousands)

Monthly Wastage Total up to 2 + 24 after Z + 24 (thousands)

(thousands)

ilonthly supply after Z + 24 (thousands)

4.5

3.7"

1627

50

1300

74

7478

260

7360

233

3"

لیا 8

1241

40

3000

250

11209

400

12800

1000

40 min.

(ii) From the above figures the following conclusions emerge,

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(a) /

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