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Aviation History
1940
1940 - 1717.PDF
JUNE 13, 1940 529 AS the ARMY SAW IT Practical Experiences zvith the B.E.F. The writer., who up till the time of his being called up for the Army was a member of the editorial staff of " Flight," has noted down some impressions of Iris final fortnight with the B.E.F. Between May 14 and May 29, 1940, he saw considerable air activity and his experiences, since they are those of one going straight from civil life into active warfare, are of great interest at this time. \ LMOST too much has been written lately of the wide r\ activities of the Luftwaffe during Germany's light- •*- •»• ning and successful stroke against Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg and Northern France. But since Great Britain itself is now so closely threatened, impressions of German air attack will be of interest to many. My first taste of bombing was at Alost some twelve miles from Brussels three days after the German invasion, but as we were in a suburb the parties of bombers generally passed overhead and returned empty leaving only the thunder of heavy explosions in our ears. The day before I arrived our headquarters had not been so lucky, as a bomb had dropped within 50 yards, sending splinters through most of the windows of the house, another had destroyed a stationary vehicle of our supply column, and others had fallen accurately on the neighbouring power station with- out, however, putting it permanently out of action. ,-_ ,-,. Anti'Aircraft Defence German aircraft throughout the time I was in action used to come over in comparatively small waves considering the numbers available for attack. I did not see more than eighteen in a group at a time. Round this Belgian town there was a heavy anti-aircraft defence which gave a certain sense of security and kept the enemy high. Judging from the sound I should say there was a formidable battery of big anti-aircraft guns in the district besides the smaller quick-firing Bofors. As a whole, the British troops do not place much faith in anti-aircraft gunfire. One of the chief uses of A.A. is indeed to help one to spot where the enemy planes are, as the blobs of black or white smoke in the sky are a sure guide as to whether the bombers will come near you. Aircraft above were often difficult to distinguish at a great height and in the glare of the sunshine which favoured the Germans every day. I have seen the sky absolutely peppered with an anti-aircraft barrage yet the Germans will fly serenely through with only an occasional wag of the wings to indicate that blast was somewhere near. Pilots with a stout heart fly straight through such a barrage which appears to have little effect even on bomb aim. The same applies to a low-flying bomb attack which can still be pressed home, though this time with more likelihood of a direct hit from the short-range Bofors gun. With a good gunner making rapid use of his clips of five rounds and firing tracer this gun can harass the 3,000ft. bomber con- siderably, and I have seen the immediate and devastating effect of a direct hit from such a gun. The effect of fighter aircraft on bombers is in direct con- trast to that of anti-aircraft fire. Whilst this latter is looked on as a sort of desperate expedient by the sheltering troops during a raid, the appearance of British fighters leads to an invigorating change. The bombing is dis- organised and ceases, the formation breaks up, and soon one hears the fierce bark of eight Brownings chewing into the enemy. The troops, their fears entirely forgotten. WestJand Lysander army co-operation machines which, seen head-on at a distance, might be confused with German Hs 126s. come out into the open and cheer the fight. The slightest success raises their spirits immediately, spirits inevitably low when bombing raid after raid takes place without opposition. It was difficult to explain to the men the general absence of fighter opposition. In the first days of the Belgian cam- paign there were a large number of Allied fighters on guard, but as we dropped back their appearance became increasingly rare. I have heard that the Belgian front proved an awkward operating distance from the most advanced aerodromes in Northern France, and that the Belgian aerodromes available had not proved suitable. Later still, after the German break through from Sedan, I suppose that our air force in Northern France not only became isolated from its headquarters, but also lost a num- ber of its aerodromes to the enemy until I should say fighter opposition for the B.E.F. came mostly from Eng- land. The question of identifying enemy and Allied air- craft also led our men to assume that only the Luftwaffe was in the sky, and in the last desperate days around Dunkerque the gunners seemed to fire at all and sundry. The Flight charts would be a valuable guide, but in the field the wall-cards would not be so practicable as a chart folding like a map. Presumably Royal Artillery gunners are fully instructed, but there are plenty of men manning anti-aircraft Bren and Lewis defence guns in other units who have never seen such a chart. The question is a very difficult one, and an additional doubt crept in when the story got round that the enemy had captured and was using against us Hawker Hurricanes and Lysanders. But in an Army which had no newspapers for ten days and which relied for its news on the B.B.C. news broadcast through Lord Nuffield's wireless sets rumours of the most fantastic kind were rife between spasmodic listenings-in. I preferred my own observation. In general my con- clusion of the average German air raid is that its most damaging effect is the disorganisation caused. The appear- ance of, say, eight bombers over our supply point necessi- tated the men taking to the deep ditches with which the district was fortunately well provided. Work ceased whiie the bombs fell with that disconcerting whistle, heavy thud, and accompanying shower of shrapnel and debris. They might fall 200yd. away, or they might not fall at all, but work ceased just the same. I was not machine-gunned by diving aircraft, but I saw this happen on distant main roads, and the effect must be even more damaging than bombing to continued work. To balance this was the fact that one individual raid caused a comparatively small amount of damage considering the number of bombs dropped. One unit or another of our column must have been bombed every day, yet casualties were about one per cent among the men and two per cent, among the vehicles.
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