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Aviation History
1941
1941 - 0198.PDF
68 JANUARY 23RD, 1941. WAR IN THE AIR (Continued) • >• STUKAS SANCTUARY : The interior and exteriorof one of the floating rescue pontoons anchored in the Channel for Lujtwaffe pilots who have had to Swim for it. liritish Movietvnews. bomber for ten minutes and climbing to nearly 20,000ft.(the temperature was 50 deg. below freezing point), he put in a single, well-directed burst of fire lasting only fourseconds. The raider, struck amidship, blew up with an explosion which the official report described as a "fire-work display:" A few minutes later he sighted another enemy bomber flying above him. Undetected, hemanoeuvred himself into position, and then, easing up the nose of his aircraft, opened fire. Streams of tracer bulletscould be scon striking the engines and cutting into the port wing. Both gunners were apparently killed or woundedwith the first long burst, as there was no return fire. For about thirty seconds after the attack, the enemy bomberflew on an even course, then, with engines almost stopped and streaming vapour, it turned slowly to port and divedtowards the sea. Turning inside the enemy aircraft, the fighter pilot followed, him dowa and saw the angle of thedive becoming rapidly steeper, until, apparently out of con- trol, the bomber plunged into the cloud layer at an angleof fifty degrees from the horizontal. Our Canadian contemporary Commercial Aviation haspublished the following speculation about the night-fighter problem. We reproduce it, without comment, for what itis worth: — "It is thought in U.S. scientific circles that the newBritish ' secret weapon ' which appears to be an ultra-sensi- tive means of detecting the presence of enemy aircraft re-gardless of weather condition, is in effect ' an infra-red ray telescope' similar to one shown by Dr. Vladimir K.Zworykin, of the Radio Corporation of America, at the Jan. 12 . 13 , M „ 15 .. 16 .. 17 .. 18 AIR GERMAN Aircraft __ 2 1 11 6 LOSSES TO JANUARY 13. . BRITISH , Fighter Aircraft Pilots _ __ _ . — 0 0 ENEMY in Middle East Say 35 at Catania + 6 *••• 41 2 10 1 10 (say) 64 BRITISH in Middle East 2 1 1 3 7 British bombers lost over German territory : Jan. 12 4 ; .'an. 15, I ; Jan. 16 5; Total. 10. German tosses by R.A.F. and ground defences in Northern Area, 4196. British aircraft lost in Northern Area, 1714". n the Mldd!e East the R.A.F. have destroyed about 671 enemy aircraft and have los; 86 December. 1935, meeting of the American Association forthe Advancement of Science. The device picks up the infra-red radiations given off by any hot object (in thisinstance an airplane engine) at night or in the daytime. Infra-red rays pass freelythrough haze and smoke to reach the sensitive instru-ment, but any fog, except a very thin one, stops them." The R.A.F. haiS likewise •continued its systematic raid- Ing of places,,-where, it can ;damage, the/enemy's war eiiort. The jday raid onJanuary 10 over the Pas de . ( .dais, when our bomberswent over with a strong escort of fighters, was a noveleffort, and probably gave Field Marshal Goring somefood for thought. It is a standard German doctriiqathat day raiding gives better** results than are possible bynight, and with that the British authorities are notlikely to disagree. Obviously the Germans only abandoned day bombing because it hadfailed to achieve its purpose, and was growing too expen- sive. While the Germans were approaching our coasts atall hours of the day, our defence fighters had to remain at their posts. "Now it has been found safe to send our fightersacross the Channel. Another straw has shown which way the wind is blow-ing, or, to vary the metaphor, more coming events have cast a shadow before. Germany has lost her first bomberto American fighter aircraft flown by British pilots. Flying Grumman single-seater fighters, naval pilots have shot downa Ju. 88 bomber, all four occupants of the German machine being captured. Three of these aircraft were on patrolwhen weather conditions necessitated recall to their base. The leader had actually landed when he caught sight ofthe Ju. 88. He promptly took off again, and, climbing back into the clouds, rejoined his two companions just^uas one of them opened fire on the raider. The Ju. 88 J~" eventually crashed into.a bog. The Air Minister at Glasgow CPEAKING at Glasgow last week, Sir Archibald Sinclair^ .._,^ Air Minister, drew attention to a branch of R.A.F.*g work which is useful, probably monotonous, and certainly^dangerous, but which has not received much public recog- nition, namely, the laying of mines to interrupt Germansea communications. Sir Archibald said : " We heard much about our own losses at sea, but less about the Germanlosses at sea and the work of our gallant Hampdens and Beauforts and the Swordfish of the Fleet Air Arm who laidthe mines in the paths of German ships. It was work as dangerous and highly skilled as bombing. The Air Minister also gave some figures about air lossesinflicted and suffered by the Middle East Command. In Greece, he said, our airmen, besides inflicting heavy damageon Italian bases, especially Valona. and Durazzo, had definitely destroyed 56 Italian aircraft for a loss of 19British machines. In Malta our defences had destroyed 42 Italian aircraft for a loss of 25 British. In Libya, sincethe battle started, the R.A.F. had destroyed 90 Italian aircraft in the air, and some 115 on the ground, for a lossof only 17 British machines. Since Sir Archibald made his speech there has been morefighting at Malta. The Italians or Germans have made heavy bombing attacks there, on January 18 and 19, and ran Italian communique claimed that H.M.S. Illustrious had been hit again by a dive-bomber. The enemy ,machines, however, lost a hieh proportion of their number. f&
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