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Aviation History
1940
1940 - 0467.PDF
and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WORLD ; FOUNDED WO9 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.1 TeJejrat¥i* : Truditur, Sedist, London. Telephone : Waterloo 3333 (SO lines). 8-10, CORPORATION ST., COVENTRY. Telegrams : Autocar, Coventry. Telephone : Coventry 5210. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: GUILDHALL BUILDINGS, NAVIGATION ST., BIRMINGHAM, 2. Telegrams: Autopress, Birmingham. Telephone : Midland 2971 <S lines). 260, DEANSGATE, MANCHESTER, 3. Telegrams : Iliffe, Manchester. Telephone: Blackfriars 4412 26B, RENFIELD ST., GLASGOW, C2. Telegrams : Iliffe, Glasgow. Telephone: Central 485-7. Home and Canada : Other Countries : Year, £1 13 0.Year, £1 16 0. 6 months, 16s. 6d.6 months, 18s. Od. 3 months, 3s. 6d.3 months, 9s. Od. No. 1625 Vol. XXXVIi. FEBRUARY 15, 1940. The Outlook- Thursdays, Price 6d. You Have Been WarnedS IR KINGSLEY WOOD has added his voice to the warnings which other politicians and officers have been uttering about the absence of bombing. The need for such warnings is obvious; one has only to note how few gas masks are now carried about in the streets. It may be true that gas is unlikely to be used by the Germans, but the discarding of respirators is a sign of an unjustified confidence against which those in authority are wise to protest. The knowledge that we are relaxing our precautions might in itself stimulate the Germans to launch an attack, and to let loose gas. A gas attack might have dreadful results if it were launched after the bombers had passed and the rescue parties had begun their operations. Bombing attacks on London will not win the war for Germany. Flight for years past has expressed the opinion that bombing of civilians must be useless for that purpose, and therefore that in a European war neither side would start attacks on civilian populations —except in one of two cases: either because one side felt itself so overwhelmingly strong that retribution was not to be feared, or because it was desperate and knew that it could not escape defeat. In the latter case that side might think that it might as well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb, and would vent its spite for no military reason. Forecasts JustifiedS O far the course of this war has absolutely verified Flight's opinion. If the Germans had believed that bombing would beat Britain to its knees we should have been bombed months ago. Therefore, obviously, they do not believe it. Once let desperation seize upon the minds of the Nazi leaders, and then our second con- dition will have been fulfilled. One simply cannot imagine Hitler and his henchmen suing for peace until they had inflicted as much suffering as they could con- trive on the non-combatants of this country. They may even start before the debacle has become imminent, hoping, perhaps, that the desire to end the horrors would inspire Britain with a haste for peace and so with wil- lingness to grant easier terms. Everybody, including the German leaders, knows that once the bombs are let loose.they will fall on both sides, and probably in greater numbers on the far side of the Rhine. The Allies will not deliberately attack civilians, but even in attacks on munition works many civilians must suffer. If Hitler were a true lover of Germany he would want to avoid this, but he is not. To him the brave but docile German people are but the instruments of his ambition, and once he begins to despair of success it is not likely that consideration for German lives would hold him back from hitting out blindly at the two peoples who had thwarted him. If Flight should prove wrong in this last prophecy, so much the better ; but so far Flight's estimate of what the air campaign would be has not been wrong. The Future of Civil AviationT HERE is a growing volume of evidence that Flight was voicing the feelings of many when, two or three weeks ago, we brought up the sub- ject of commercial aviation and called attention to the plight in which it finds itself. Because they support and amplify what we have said from time to time, we are glad to give space in this week's issue to the state- ment of opinions of Imperial Airways and others. The arguments put forward by Imperial Airways to the London Chamber of Commerce are so convincing and so obviously sincere that it is greatly to be hoped that the Aviation Section of the Chamber will exert all its influence towards impressing upon the authorities that it is folly indeed to let commercial aviation fall by the wayside. Flight can justly claim to have taken an active part in arousing interest in a subject which was in danger of being forgotten. First we published a very able article by Mr. E. C. Gordon-England, entitled "Keep Those
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