FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1937
1937 - 2281.PDF
AIRCRAF ENGINEER AND AIRSHIPS • -> » i mr\." FIRST AERONAUTICAL^WEEKLYIN THE^WORLD .• FOUNDED WOO Editor C M. POULSEN Managing Editor G. GEOFFREY SMITH Chief Photographer JOHN YOXALL Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices, DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, S.E.I Telegrams : Troditnr, Sedist. London. Telephone : Waterloo 3333 (SO lines). HERTFORD ST., COVENTKV. Telegrams : Autocar, Coventry. Telephone: Coventry 5210. GUILDHALL BUILDINGB, NAVIGATION ST., BIRMINGHAM, 2. Telegrams: Autopress, Birmingham. Telephone: Midland 2971. 260, DEAN SO ATE, MANCHESTER, S. Telegrams: Iliffe, Manchester. Telephone: Blackfriars 4412. 26B, BENPIELD St, GLASGOW, C.2. Telegrams: Iliffe, Glasgow. Telephone: Central 4857. SUBSCRIPTION BATES; Home and Canada: Other Countries: Year, £1 13 0. Year, f 1 16 0. 6 months, 16s. 6d. 6 months, 18s. Od. 3 months, 8s. 6d. 3 months, 9s. 00. No. 1495. Vol. XXXII. AUGUST 19, 1937. Thursdays, Price 6d. A Promising Test WHEN rain spread over the country on Tuesday night last week and the raiding by the heavy bombers was cancelled, some foreign, and even a few British, papers indulged in a certain amount of jeering at the R.A.F. as a fair-weather flying Service. The scoffers overlooked the fact that for the night-raiding in the air exercises only three targets had been allotted and that a camera obscura was stationed at each to observe the results of each raid. When rain obscures the lens of a camera obscura, observation is not possible, and so there would have been no purpose in carrying out the tests. Once more it should be emphasised that these air exercises were not meant to prove whether defence of London was or was not-possible. They were mainly intended to practise the ground elements of air defence, the Observer Corps and the searchlight battalions of the Territorial Royal Engineers; for the units employed were mostly newly raised or newly converted, and their efficiency naturally needed testing. The authorities wanted to see whether in the first place the men on the ground could locate the various raids, and in the second place whether they could get their reports through with sufficient speed to permit the A.O.C. of the Fighter Group to make sure of an interception. Practice for the R.A.F. squadrons, which are largely manned by young pilots recently turned out from the Flying Training Schools, was another desideratum; and, in addition to all the foregoing, practice for the various staffs in con ducting operations on a fairly large scale must be indulged in at least once a year. But actually interest centred chiefly on the ground elements. The tale of the raids and the interceptions shows that the men on the ground did extraordinarily well—in fact, much better than could have been expected. On the Monday evening there were " fully thirty " raids, as the official communique put it, of which " at least half " were intercepted, and all but two of the interceptions were made before the bombers had dropped their bombs. During the Monday night there were 49 raids, of which about nine got through and away without interception. There were actually 90 air combats, showing that most of the heavy bombers were intercepted more than once. On the Tuesday morning there were 36 raids and 35 interceptions. No defence system could hope to do much better than that. On the Wednesday evening 42 raids were made and 37 air combats took place. A rough summary shows that during the exercises about 157 raids were made, of which about 127 were inter cepted—not counting the attacks made on night raiders which had previously been shot down. Although the weather in the opening periods was very much in favour of the defence, this result is highly creditable to the work of the Observer Corps and the Territorials. Unreality From these figures it is quite impossible to estimate whether our air defence system can make London a very unattractive and expens.ve target for enemy raiders. The bombers had to raid in fine weather, and were not given a free hand in planning their attacks. The defence had no guns, no balloon aprons, and no counter-attacking force. The aircraft employed were a heterogeneous lot, ranging from Blenheims and Battles to Gordons, while there were no fighters of more modern type than the Gladiator. No casualties were assessed, and no light was thrown on the problem of whether by day a squad ron of fighters can outmatch a squadron of fast bombers. It was merely a test of whether the reports would come in fast enough to allow interceptions to be made. In that respect the new Groups of the Observer Corps and the various searchlight battalions of the Territorial Arm ' have covered themselves with credit. While expressing satisfaction with what was done last week, we do not wish it to be thought that all is as well as can be with the ground side of air defence. We still •'
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
