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Aviation History
1941
1941 - 0250.PDF
JANUARY 30TH, 1941. WAR IN THE AIR (Continued) SOUVENIRS :An R.A.F. pilot with sundryodds and ends collected in andaround Bardia. picked pilots tothe help of Italy. The damage doneat Valetta has been heavy, audhas been borne witli such cour-age that Mr. Churchill hassent a telegram of congratulationand encourage- 111 e n t to thepeople. The act- ing Governor ofthe island re- plied, saying, " By God's help Malta will not weaken." Ina broadcast to the people he said, "The heaviest toll has been taken of the enemy. A heavier toll will be taken ifhe attacks again. The people of Malta will continue to show the same spirit which has won the admiration ofthe world in past months." The German Intervention •\17HEN one bears in mind the success which has attendedthe co-operation of all three Services in the campaign in Libya, one cannot believe that the general position inthe Mediterranean can be much altered by the help which Germany has so far sent to Italy, as that help has con-sisted, at first at least, of only one arm, the air arm. That by itself could not reverse the present position. TheBritish and Greeks are in the ascendant on all three elements, and, even if the R.A.F. have now to fight harderto hold the mastery of the air, that will not convert Graziani into the conqueror of Egypt or give the shatteredItalian Navy command of the sea. It could not drive the Greek troops back through Albania. The German HighCommand has learnt from its experiences round about the English Channel that a superiority of aircraft does not spellvictory. So it is not surprising to hear that the German Army is massing in the direction of the Balkans, and thatstrong pressure is being put upon Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. It is highly improbable that the Germans will repeat themistake which Mussolini made and start a Balkan cam- paign while winter conditions prevail; but the spring isdrawing near, and then there may be developments. There is, of course, the possibility that the Germans are feintingat the Balkans in order to draw more British forces there and so, they will hope, weaken the defences of GreatBritain. On the other hand, the threats put about that Great Britain is soon to be invaded may be intended tokeep forces in the North which might otherwise be sent to the Middle East. Hitler wants to kwp us guessing. Heis working on interior lines, and can move troops easily (or as easily as the not very good railway services permit) fromthe Channel to the Balkans or in the other direction. But he is known to have a strong aversion to fighting on twofronts at the same time. We British also have to fight on two fronts, or at leastto be ready to do so; but our command of the seas makes it possible for us to move our forces from one front toanother, though more slowly. When we are a fully armed nation, this command of the seas will give us the initiativeand allow us to choose the most favourable spot for assum- ing the offensive. We have a great asset in our PrimeMinister, one who has deeply studied strategy, and who, as Minister of Defence, will make it certain that the effortsof our Services are co-ordinated and not dispersed. Twenty odd years ago he was himself involved in such a dispersal ofeffort, the Navy running one campaign while the Army ran another; but he is now in a position to see that that sortof thing does not happen again. In view of the German threat to Yugoslavia and Bulgaria,there have been staff conversations between the British and the Turks. They are not the first which have taken place,but since the last were held much water has run down the Nile. Unfortunately, we and the Turks can no longer-count on French help from Syria; but, on the other hand, there is now no need for the staffs to discuss an Italianthreat to Egypt. There should be stirring happenings in the spring, but the Germans are still a long way off fromthe oilfields of Iran and Iraq. Raids on German Territory TT would be premature to assert that regular raiding by•*• day of objectives in territory occupied by the enemy has become a standard policy of the R.A.F., but occasionalsurprise sorties by either fighters or bombers, or both, grfej chances to do useful damage. On January 22 fighter pilotsof the R.A.F. carried out an offensive sweep over enemy- occupied aerodromes in Northern France, attacking anddamaging aircraft on the ground, scattering convoys on the roads and machine-gunning troops engaged on constructionwork. Six pilots, all Poles from a famous Hurricane squadron, took part in the raid. Twice they left theirbase during the afternoon to carry out attacks, and on each occasion they returned to report success. On the firsttrip one of the pilots began the offensive by diving and firing at a number of small motor boats he met off theFrench coast while on the way to Le Touquet aerodrome, where he saw five Messerschmitt 109s on the ground, andmachine-gunned them. On his way back he met anti-air- craft fire, and stopped long enough to send all his remain-ing ammunition spattering among the guns' crews. When the pilots went out the second time, the six splitup into pairs. The first pair hid in the clouds for some minutes until they were well over the French coast, whenthe pilots dived down on to an aerodrome in course of construction about twenty' miles inland. As they opened A FIAT HAD BEEN ISSUED : The remains of an ItalianC.R. 42 fighter left derelict on the V^estern Desert.
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