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Aviation History
1940
1940 - 2301.PDF
AUGUST 15, 1940 127 AIR BLOCKADE (CONTINUED runway will immediately raise a howl. How long would a special runway last? Wouldn't it be bombed to glory almost before it was finished? Well, if it were to be so bombed that it would take bombers away from other targets, it would be better for the enemy bombers to bomb runways than- to bomb factories and docks and houses, and lots of other things. But need the runway be so very easily bombed? The arts of camouflage could surely be used to protect it, with a dummy runway clearly visible and the real run- way well camouflaged. Wouldn't that upset many a pilot who came over to bomb the runway? The dummy could be blown sky high time after time and rebuilt during the day, and at night for that matter; it would be a useful decoy for enemy air activity. And, except for the moment of actual use, the special runway method of launching would lit in with the need for aircraft dis- persion as a safeguard from bombing, for counter aero- drome bombing has become a regular feature of the present war. Again, there are the composite aircraft and the re- fuelling-in-the-air methods of increasing range. Have they been tried out in this war? If not, why haven't they been tried? It was the Norwegian campaign which first demanded a great increase in range from the operating squadrons of the R.A.F. The conditions of that campaign were not envisaged in advance. They were sprung on this country as an unpleasant actuality, and among the sur- prises, the operation of aircraft without suitable bases close to the operating army was a new feature in war to the British Staff. There seemed not to be any suitable means to overcome that operational limitation. The possibilities of increasing range offered by various methods ought to have been studied and provision made for some aircraft to have special long-range facilities, even if it were just to provide against the unforeseen possibility which does crop up in war. That need for ultra-long range aircraft is even more urgent to-day. There are the big geographical split between our forces in Great Britain and our forces in the Middle East, and the greater distances to reach Eastern Germany and Italy to be bridged. AH call for aircraft with somewhat similar qualities. It is true that we have been giving German targets a pretty good tousing during recent weeks. But almost all those targets lie in the western half of Germany— seldom, if ever, east of a line running through Rostock, Gotha, Stuttgart. That is an area representing roughly a third of the pre-Anschluss-with-Austria Germany, and only a fraction of the Greater Germany which existed before the Norwegian attack developed. East of that line lie the great industrial areas, and areas containing many targets of military importance, in the true Germany, in Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland. To make our air blockade of Germany complete it is essen- tial to possess and operate aircraft over those areas. The Fleet Air Arm cannot help, for its relatively short-range aircraft cannot be taken near enough to the shores of the Continent to do more than can our bombers shore- based in the United Kingdom. What we need are bombers with a much greater range, obtained without sacrifice of bomb load. They are needed urgently even as temporary types pending the delivery of others with still greater range and bomb load. Everything needed to permit them to operate should be put in hand, so that the present air operations can be extended to the targets which lie beyond our present areas of attack. What some of those targets are I propose to discuss in some detail in my next article. OIL and WAR Some Oil Figures as They Affect the Present Struggle THOUGH it has always been very important, the oilaspect of the war has been thrown into high reliefby recent events. Germany's conquests have brought her ample iron resources in France and in Spain, and in France she has captured the greatest aluminium- producing country in the world. But she still needs to control oil wells if she is to wage a long war. The articles which have been written about oil have been numerous, and many of them have demonstrated con- clusively—or at any rate to the journalists' own satis- faction—that "the Nazis can't last." That does not mean that this article is going to strike a pessimistic note and claim that it is- being courageous in the interests of truth in so doing. It is just not going to "strike a note" at all. For the first conclusion the writer came to when he started investigating oil consump- tion, production and export' among some official statistics was that no conclusion could be reached. A bad confession with which to start an article, but since the investigation was to seek out truth, one must put down truth as it is found. The most reliable figures which were obtainable had to admit themselves uncertain on many things. League of Nations statistics on annual pro- duction had disagreements of perhaps 15 per cent, when compared with similar figures from other sources. And on the production of oil from coal, uncertainties of per- haps 100 per cent, were admitted. So if readers seek in this article some estimate of the length of time for which war can be waged—by either side —they had better turn over the page, for no such attempt at forecasting will be made. The article seeks only to paint the broad outlines of the oil picture as it was before the war, so that a background is available against which to see the significance of some of the present happenings. Quantities What does the word "oil " mean? It does not mean petrolnor does it mean lubricating oil. A better word instead of "oil" would be "petroleum products," for, as quoted inpapers, "oil" may be taken to include all the following: aviation fuels, motor spirits, fuel oils, lubricating oils andcrude oil. In short, all liquid products from the oil refineries and wells and the products from hydrogenation plants produc-ing petrol from coal. Statistics are given in barrels, tons of 2,2401b. cr metric tonnesof 1,000 kilograms (2,2041b.). A barrel contains 42. U.S. gallons, which gallon is different from the imperial gallon, being0.83 (or five-sixths) of it. So a barrel contains 35 imperial gallons. The weight per gallon of petroleum products varies consider-ably, petrol being about 7.51b., while lubricating oil weighs about gib. Consequently, the number of barrels to the tonof oil (meaning petroleum products) varies, but 7.4 is an average figure. Though "oil " does not necessarily mean "fuel for internalcombustion engines," to compare oil figures is certainly to obtain relative figures of the fuel available, since in thesedays of chemical marvels, all sorts of natural petroleum from the heavy oils to the natural gases can be converted into fuels
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