FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1928
1928 - 0784.PDF
AUGUST 23, 1928 m Doing good work: One of the many small observa- tion posts which spotted and re- ported the pass- ing of raiders overhead bound for London. [" FLIGHT " Photograph between them and the coast but the " Foxes " slipped by, making use of theclouds, their high speed, and by changing course frequently. They were next reported over Horsham at 7.32 p.m. The route whichthey were taking towards the coast was now clear and the A.O.C., Westland Air Forces ordered up No. 43 Squadron, which was standing by at Tangmere,but once more the " Foxes " escaped, thanks to their great speed. Owing to the very large amount of flying which has already been carried out,Air Marshal Scarlett has decided to terminate the Exercises at 1 a.m. on Friday, August 17, by which hour all aircraft have been ordered to be clear ofthe Operational Area. Noon—August 16, 1928.—During the night raids by heavy bombersbelonging to four squadrons were continued. The weather in the main favoured the defence, visibility being generally good, with the exception of theThames Valley and to the North. There was a layer of broken clouds from 3,000 to 10,000 ft. up and a wind of 30 m.p.h. from the West at high altitudes. Good plotting by ground observers and skilful handling of the searchlightsresulted in 24 of the 29 raiders being discovered. No. 99 Squadron, attacking to the North of the Thames, where the weatherwas least favourable to the defence, was the most successful of the raiders, as two of the six machines employed reached the target without being caughtby searchlights or fighters. No. 32 (Fighter) Squadron reported that they had no less than 20 fightswith bombers during the night. Twenty-two of the 29 raiders in all were attacked by fighters. In addition the A.A. gunners were active but theumpires' verdicts are not yet available. Early this morning Eastland made another concentrated attack on Londonwith 7 squadrons of day bombers. The weather was mainly fair with a layer of broken cloud from 5,000 to 10,000 ft. up. Visibility was good on the wholeexcept in the Thames Valley and the wind was light. Eight fighter squadrons were sent up and intercepted a proportion of the raiders before the latter hadarrived over their targets. No. 12 Squadron with fast Fox day bombers was intercepted this time bytwo squadrons South of London when on the way in. No. 39 Squadron, whose objective was Uxbridge, was attacked six times inall, half being on the way in. 10 p.m. August 16, 1928.—The last day raid of the Air Exercises has beenoutstanding for several reasons. To begin with, exceptionally complete and accurate information was supplied by the Observer Corps, although the O <3> bombers came in in groups of squadrons close together instead of being wellseparated. Further, at least one squadron split up into flights after reaching the coast. In spite of the resulting difficulties, the progress of each formationwas well reported. The work of the Essex and Sussex Observers was out- standing. With this information in his possession, the Westland Commander was ableto place his fighters so as to intercept the raiders and an unprecedented number of combats took place. The eight fighter squadrons employed have reportedno less than 23 fights with the seven raiding squadrons. Nos. 19 and 56 Squadrons to the East of London and Nos. 41 and I Squadrons to the southwere specially successful in intercepting the bombers. It is not yet possible to assess the number of bombers who succeeded inevading interception on the way in. To-night, there is a layer of cloud from 4,000 to 5,000 ft. up, the base ofwhich appears to be dropping. Conditions seem very unfavourable for the defenders. There is a wind of about 30 miles per hour at 10,000 ft.Night bombers have already been reported as approaching the London area from the Essex Coast and from the direction of Hastings. Four fightersquadrons have patrols up to intercept the raiders. Press Summary, Xoon, August nth. 1928.—At 9o'clock last night the firstnight bombers were reported to have crossed the coast of Essex and Kent in the final stage of the operations. There was only a light wind near theground and so observers were able to hear approaching raiders clearly ; adequate warning was therefore available. There was in places a layer of clouds at about 4,000 ft. varying in thickness,which tended to hinder the work of the searchlights. Where the clouds were sufficiently thin the raiders flying above them could be seen by fighters stillhigher up against the patch of clouds lit up by searchlights from below. Of the four fighter squadrons sent up by the defence No. 32 was the mostsuccessful in intercepting raiders, and by 11 o'clock had had nine combats. In all 18 fights were reported and a majority of the bombers who reached thezone of operations by the time the exercises were stopped were attacked. At about 11 o'clock low clouds became prevalent in the searchlight areaand as these conditions were dangerous for attack by fighters on bombers and as searchlights and night bombers had had ample work in the three previousnights the Air Officer Commanding in Chief decided to terminate the exercises at once instead of allowing them to continue to 1 a.m. as had been announcedpreviously. O INTERNATIONAL APPRECIATION : This photograph shows a batch of Fokker aeroplanes outside the flyingsheds at Schiphol aerodrome, Amsterdam. On the left are four C.V.'s for the Swedish Air Force. Next comes " Mr." Carbery's Universal. Next to that is an F. VII built for the Danish Air Traffic Co. An F. VII-3m forthe Nederlandsch-Indische Luchtvaart Maatschappy follows, and in the foreground is an F. VII built for Poland. The C.V.'s and one of the F. VII's are fitted with " Jupiter "engines, while the F. VII-3m has three Armstrong-Slddeley " Lynx " engines. The latter machine is one of a batch to be used in the Dutch East Indies ,728
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
