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Aviation History
1940
1940 - 2409.PDF
AUGUST 29, 1940 101 WAR in the Am The Prime Minister's Speech : Another Victoria Cross : Italians Heavily Bombed IN SORRY STRAITS. A picture taken during a Royal Air Force attack on the German-occupied coast between Calais andBoulogne. On the left are seen "flaming onions " and other shells bursting in the sky, while at ground level is to be seen the glow • . of a fire started by bombs. This picture was taken on the South East coast of England. THE Prime Minister, Mr. Winston Churchill, made astriking speech in the House of Commons on Wed-nesday, August 21, reviewing the present position. In the course of it he made the following most heartening announcement: '' The enemy is, of course, far more numerous than we are, but our new production already, as I am advised, largely exceeds his," and American produc- tion is only just beginning to flow in. It is a fact that after all this fighting our bomber and fighter strengths are larger than they have ever been." Among other striking passages in Mr. Churchill's speech were the following: '' We must certainly expect that greater efforts will be made by the enemy than any he has so far put forth. It is quite plain that. Herr Hitler could not admit defeat in his air attack on Great Britain without sustaining most serious injury. If his whole air on- slaught were forced tamely to peter out the Fiihrer'e repu- tation for veracity of statement" might be seriously im- pugned." Mr. Churchill also spoke of "any preoccu- pations he (Hitler) may have in respect of the Russian Air Force," a cryptic saying which he did not elaborate. Of our •fighter pilots Mr. Churchill said; "The gratitude of every home in bur island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen, who, undaunted by odds, unwearied by their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of world war by their prowess and by their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." Then, turning to the bomber squadrons, he added : " We must never foreet that all the time, night after night, month after month, our bomber .squadrons travel far into Germany, find their targets in the darkness by the highest navigational skill, aim their attacks, often under the heaviest fire, often at serious Joss, with deliberate, careful precision, and inflict shattering blows upon the whole of the technical and war-making structure of the Nazi power. On no part of the Royal Air Force does the weight of the war fall more heavily than on the daylight bombers, who will play an invaluable part in the case of invasion and whose unflinching zeal it has been necessary in the mean- time on numerous occasions to restrain." The Prime Minister added that our bombing efforts "May in another year attain dimensions hitherto undreamed of," and that they "assured one of the most certain if not the shortest of all roads to victory.". Another Victoria Cross HPHE splendid attack by Hairipden bombers on the Dort- •*" mund-Ems canal on August .12 will be remembered. For his part in the raid Acting Flight Lieut. R. A. B. Learoyd was awarded the Victoria Cross. He was the third mem- ber of the R.A.F. to receive this most glorious of all dis- tinctions in the present war. On Monday, August 19, he was brought to the microphone of the B.B.C. and gave a modest account of the raid. "It was unfortunate," he said, "from our point of view of course, that the enem ' knew pretty well the direction from which we must attack. They had disposed their defences so that they formed a sort of lane through which we |iad to pass. It seemed to me that they had strengthened-jhese defences a great deal since the first raids." His starboard wing was hit twice
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