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Aviation History
1940
1940 - 2407.PDF
and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE W6RLD ; FOUNDED W09 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: Trudltur, Sedist, London. Telephone: Waterloo 3333 (35 lines). 8-10, CORPORATION ST., GUILDHALL BUILDINGS, 260, DEANSGATE, 26B, RENFIELD ST., COVENTRY. Telegrams: Autocar Coventry. Telephone : Coventry 5210. SUBSCRIPTION RATES : NAVIGATION ST., BIRMINGHAM, 2. Telegrams: Autopress, Birmingham. Telephone : Midland 2971 (5 lines). Home and Abroad : Year, £2 8 0. 6 months, £1 4 0. Registered at the G.P.O. as a Newspaper. MANCHESTER, 3. Telegrams : Iliffe, Manchester, Telephone: Blackfriars 4412. GLASGOW, C.2. Telegrams: Iliffe, Glasgow Telephone: Central 4857. 3 months, 12s. Od. No 1653. Vol. XXXVIII. AUGUST 29, 1943 Thursdays, Price 9d. The Outlooks " Overflowing Reserves "N OT the least heartening of the references to the progress of the air war which Mr. Churchill made in his review of the situation on August 20 was that in which" he referred to the subject of production. After mentioning the salvage system by which damaged aircraft are repaired and returned to the fighting line, Mr. Churchill paid a tribute to the output of aircraft and engines which, under the drive of Lord Beaverbrook, '' looked like magic'' ; the Prime Minister said that this had given us an overflowing reserve of every type of air- craft. Our new production, he was advised, already largely exceeded that of the enemy, and American pro- duction was only just beginning to flow in. "It is a fact," Mr. Churchill continued, "as I see from our daily returns, that our fighter and bomber strengths are now, after all this fighting, larger than they have ever been." The Prime Minister is certainly not likely to under- rate German production. When he was a voice cry- ing in the wilderness he warned the Baldwin and Ramsay MacDonald self- complacent Governments of Germany's tremendous efforts to build up her air force. He is not likely to be one degree less con- cerned about German pro- r-duction now, and if he can tell the House of Com- mons that our production has overtaken that of Ger- many, we may be sure .that Mr. Churchill has " good grounds for his state- ment. Let us examine what it implies. WAR CABINET CONGRATULATES BOMBER SQUADRONS The Secretary of State for Air has received the following message from the Prime Minister:— " Please convey to the Commanckr-in-Chief, Bomber Command, the congratulations of the War Cabinet on the success of the operations against Germany on Friday night. The War Cabinet is impressed by the skill with which both these operations and those against Italy and Germany on olher recent occasions have been prepared, and by the cool and sure courage and efficency with which the fighting crews of the bomber squadrons have earned them out. Both the night and the day bomber squadrons are dealing hard blows against Italy and Germany and they deserve the thanks and admiration of their fellow-countrymen " Profit and Loss AccountS PECULATIONS about the. rate of German aircraft production vary. Mr. T. P. Wright, of the Curtiss- Wright Corporation, a very knowledgeable authority, has given it as his opinion that the figure is 2,000 machines a month. Other authorities have thought 1,800 more likely. Our Air Ministry considers even the lower figure an over-estimate. Let us, for the purpose of argument, take 65 machines a day as likely to be not far wrong. Some of these must be trainers, perhaps 15 will be, leaving 50 operational machines coming out of the German factories every day. In the recent mass attacks on Britain the most in- tensive period was the eight days from August 11 to August 18, both inclusive. There was righting on only seven of those days, for Saturday the 18th was a blank. If our estimated figures are to be accepted, in those eight days the Luftwaffe received from the factories 400 operational machines. In those eight days our defences destroyed for certain 644 fighters and bombers That shows a substantial max gin of loss over gain to the Luftwaffe. It even allows a margin for error in our figures, and still means that we were shooting down German machines faster than their factories could turn them out. That does not neces- sarily mean that Goring has accepted a defeat in his air campaign against Britain. He must have large reserves. But the figures do not suggest that the air war is likely to end in a German success.
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