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Aviation History
1941
1941 - 0014.PDF
JANUARY 2ND, 1941. WAR IN THE AIR (Continued) with bad leadership and lack oi adaptability when faced by novel conditions, did much to make the task of the Germans comparatively easy. In all these campaigns tne Luftwaffe was acting as an arm of the German Army against other armies. In the meantime the Royal Air Force had been display- ing its adaptability. The first British concern in the war was to make certain of the command of the seas round the British Isles. Therefore, the Bomber Command, the most flexible of all the forces employed in this war, led off by striking at the German Navy. After the initial blows at Wilhelmshaven and Brunsbuttel, it had to give, for a time, pride of place to the Coastal Command. It was no fault of the Bomber Command that its squadrons were not used to hamper the transference of German troops from Poland to the borders of France and Belgium. Higher authority had ordained that the bombers should only drop leaflets on German soil. At the same time it is difficult to understand why the Luftwaffe did not interfere at all with the land- ing of the B.E.F. at French ports. There was ineptitude shown on both sides, but the heads of the flying Services were not to blame, at least on the British side. The Day of the Coastal Command TTHE Coastal Command did its job right well. It scoured •*• the seas on all sides, convoying British shipping and hunting for U-boats and other German craft. Its success was not to be measured by the number of submarines directly sunk by air bombs; the reporting of the whereabouts of a U-boat to the Admiralty was its more usual task, and this contributed a great deal to the rapid mastery which the Navy gained over the first wave of submarines. On occa- sions the G.R. aircraft encountered Heinkels or Dornier flying boats, and never hesitated to attack; and these attacks were generally successful. Now and again the German Navy was reported to be out in the open sea, and then the Navy and the Bomber Command would take a hand. All action depended on information, and the Coastal Command had the responsibility of providing the informa- tion. It seldom failed to provide it. The first trial of strength between air attack and a fleet at sea occurred during this period, when a strong Britis'a naval force was escorting home the damaged submarine Spear fish. German bombers came out in considerable num- bers and tried to bomb the ships. So terrific was the fire of the multiple pompoms and other A.A. guns on the fleet that the bombers wilted and their tombs fell harmlessly in the water. A miss near the Ark Royal, which was some miles away from the main fleet, was the nearest which the Germans came to a success. In this engagement it was established fairly definitely that moving warships need not have much fear of air attacks from above. This finding has been confirmed by the results of other sea fights, including one when Hampdens attacked a force of German cruisers. In the Mediterranean T.S.R. machines have scored hits with torpedoes on both French and Italian warships on the move, but as all the circumstances have not been made public one cannot generalise from those incidents. Fleets in harbour are a different matter. The German bombers profited little or nothing from their raids on the Firth of Forth and Scapa Flow, but those raids were never made in HOPING IT FINDS YOU AS ITLEAVES ME : Polish airmen chalk- ing messages on bombs before stowage. force and never showed much determination. They seemed to be examples of the ineptitude of the Luft- waffe when acting in some capacity for which it had not been trained—when there were no German tanks rolling up behind the aircraft. A case can only be considered as proved when the effort is made by both side's with skill and determination. These qualities were displayed by the Fleet Air Arm in its splendid raid on Taranto ; but one has seen so much Italian bungling in the present war that one wonders whether the defence of the ships in their harbour was all that it ought to have been. If it was not, then the British success on that occasion dees not prove that such attacks will always be equally profitable. The Turret Versus the Fighter N one occasion when the German fleet was out in the Heligoland Bight it was attacked by the Bomber Com- mand, which, in turn, was tackled by swarms of German fighters. This was the first occasion on which the Messer- schmitt no was seen for certain in action. Theoretically, modern fighters ought to be able to annihilate a bomber contingent in such conditions, and some half-dozen Welling- tons were, as a matter of fact, shot down. That was to be expected. What was surprising about the action was that the German fighters lost an even greater number of machines. That was not in accordance with the book, and showed that the fire power of the gun turrets in British bombers was well worth the loss of speed which was the price paid for their inclusion in the design. While the British and French troops were retiring from Belgium, the Bomber Command was turned on to helping the Army. Its squadrons attacked German troops, but mainly the communications to their rear, with the object of preventing reinforcements from moving up. Though their numbers were much less than those which Germany can command, yet the British have, and had, a very fair supply of bombers. The results of their operations did not suggest that in a country with so many roads and railways the action of bombers could make the advance of an army impossible. That is another problem still left unsolved, but the probabilities are against the efficiency of air action. During the evacuation from Dunkerque the bomber force most concerned (i.e., the German) suffered a heavy defeat. If bombers could do all that their most enthusiastic disciples believe of them, the escape of the B.E.F. would have been an impossibility. The soldiers on the beaches and the
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