FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1940
1940 - 3062.PDF
364 EncouragementA IR MARSHAL Sir Philip Joubert de la Ferte is a broadcaster whom everybody likes to hear. The pity is that, with the shortening evenings and the earlier arrivals of the nightly raiders, many people have taken shelter before the 9 p.m. news is broadcast. The B.B.C. is reported to be considering that fact, and to be contemplating a reform which would give the majority of listeners a chance of hearing the most important features after they have got home from business and before they go to ground. Such a reform would be welcome to many. Sir Philip never indulges in wishful thinking. When he holds out grounds for hope, they may be accepted as valid. What the majority of people in this country, in Allied countries, and in the United States, particularly want to hear just now is the prospect of defeating the German night bombers. Everyone knows that the Germans will not win the war by knocking down build- ings, even much-prized buildings like palaces and cathedrals, and killing civilians in London, the Midlands and Liverpool, while the damage to military targets through night bombing is not expected by the Germans themselves to lead to victory. But all the civilised world wants to see an end of this senseless destruction and slaughter. It was therefore very good to hear the Air Marshal talk on the lines of entrusting the defence of cities by night to special fighter aircraft, instead of leaving the matter almost entirely to the A.A. guns. Those guns have done very useful work, but no student of air defence has ever expected fire from the ground to bring down any large number of raiders. That is the proper func- tion of fighter aeroplanes. The Defiant, Sir Philip told us, was originally designed to be a night fighter, and it is to be restored to that role, with certain develop- ments which are expected to be very effective. There is much comfort for harassed Britons in that prospect. Sir Philip also laid stress on the increase in our bomb- UCTOBER 3T, 1940 ing effort. In one night recently we were able to strike at Berlin, the Ruhr, the invasion ports, and several cities of Northern Italy. That is a wide programme, and the significant thing about it is that all the attacks were made in force—not by single machines or small forma- tions. It is evident that the numbers of the Bomber Command have been swelled, but the great increase in the strength of the R.A.F. is yet to come. Beaufort Torpedo-CarrierT WO years ago representatives of Flight visited a station of the R.A.F. where two squadrons practised the art of dropping torpedoes from Vildebeest aeroplanes. Since the outbreak of war the public has heard nothing of torpedo attacks by the R.A.F., though the Swordfish and Albacores of the Fleet Air Arm have several times used this naval weapon with great effect—notably in damaging the French warship Strasbourg as she escaped from Oran. On Wednesday, October 23, there occurred the first recorded use by the R.A.F. of a torpedo attack, when Bristol Beauforts of the Coastal Command got home with their "mouldies" on two German supply ships which were moving in convoy off the Frisian coast. One of the ships, of 4,000 tons, was left sinking by the stern, while the other, a 2,000-ton vessel, was sinking so fast that her decks were awash as the Beauforts flew away. Air-borne torpedoes, by the nature of things, cannot be so large as those discharged from the surface vessels of the Navy. The Strasbourg was not sunk by the blow delivered by the Swordfish, and is presumably being repaired at Toulon ; but cargo vessels, which are not armoured, cannot hope to survive the impact of a torpedo launched from an aeroplane. Now that a modern type of machine, such as the Beaufort, is being used from shore bases for this form of warfare we may hope to hear of more successes at the expense of German ships. HURRICANES IN ECHELON. An illustrated account of the birth and growth of this great fighter is published on pp. 369-373.During the first year of war more than 1,500 enemy aircraft were brought down by Hurricanes.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
