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Aviation History
1941
1941 - 0884.PDF
282 NOT SO HOT: A travelling hot-air oven used by the Luftwaffe during the recent wintry weather. waffe will not have things all theirown way. The rapidity of the German pushdown to the sea certainly came as a surprise. In this country the publichad not expected Salonika to fall into enemy hands so quickly. It had beenexpected that the R.A.F. would have been able to hold up the Germancolumns in the passes through the mountains where British bombersquadrons, flying Armstrong Whit- worths and D.H-4S, did such heavyexecution on the retreating Bulgar armies in 1918. Blenheims are muchmore formidable bombers, but the Germans have got through withoutapparently having suffered much from Allied air attack. This is certainlybad news, and at the moment it is not possible to foresee what will happen. Belgrade in Ruins TT was typical of the Germans to start•*• this campaign by a mass air attack 011 Belgrade of a particularlysavage nature. The ancient capital of Serbia has been laid in ruins, re-duced ID ashes. The slaughter of civilians must have been appalling.The V ugoslavs had declared the place an "open town," but such a declara-tion h;i- not the slightest restraining eifrit ( ii the modern Hun. Whetherthe destruction of the Capital will have any effect in upsetting the organi-setion of the Yugoslav plan of cam- paign cannot be guusK'd. The endsof many threads are usually congre- gated in the capital of a country. The Yugoslavs are not only defend-ing their own country but have also invaded Albania from the north. Ifthis movement is pushed through with vigour it ought to bring most substan-tial help to the Greek troops, and might even end in the overwhelmingof the Italian forces in that country. The Greeks are suffering from sheershortage of man power, for the popu- lation of their whole country is aboutthe same as that of Greater London. In the midst of so much disturbingnews, there is some consolation to be found in the occupation of Massawaby Empire troops. This had, of course, been expected. The Italiansnow hold only one port on the Red Sea, that of Assab. There is littleleft of Italian power in Eritrea or any part of Africa, and when the lastremnants of resistance have been re- moved, strong British Empire , forceswill be set free for work elsewhere, that is to say in the Balkans. Crossing the Water NE very notable failure of theenemy's air forces, Italian and German, was the immunity with whichthe British troops were conveyed from Egypt to Greece. For weeks past theconvoys have been crossing the sea, and the enemy have known all aboutit. It was impossible that this move- ment of shipping could have takenplace without the air reconnaissance of the enemy discovering the fact.Italian submarines and aircraft (some of the latter probably German) madeefforts to interfere. The aircraft dropped bombs and tried torpedoattacks, but the Navy and the R.A.F. provided inviolable protection. Thoughour Blenheims scored hits on moving Italian warships in the Battle of CapeMatapan, and though in the Sicilian channel the German dive-bombers hittwo British warships, the fact remains that for every hit scored on a movingwarship a vast number of bombs fall harmlessly into the sea. Air bomb-ing against moving ships seems much like the case of a man out partridgeshooting who is a poor shot. If he goes on trying long enough, he is sure tohit a small number of birds, at a great expenditure of cartridges. Shipscleverly handled and escorted by APRIL 17TH, 1941. destroyers with good A.A. gunners orM" ..-.board can face the risks of air attack* without much trepidation. We must now wait and see how farSir Archibald Wavell is prepared to concentrate (to use his word) histroops in Cyrenaica. The Germans in Tripoli have been pressing forward " \ .and no doubt would like nothing better than that British Forces instrength should oppose them there. General Wavell is not to be diverted *from the more important object., East Africa must be cleaned up and help1must be sent to the Greeks and Yugo- ' slavs. Even if the enemy shouldoccupy most of what we had gained in :' Cyrenaica, it will bring him no:strategic advantage. He will not be'-, allowed to capture large British' con-* 'tingents in each place ; as Sir Maitland^' Wilson was able to capture Italian^^prisoners by tens of thousands, he will., not rake in masses of useful material,and he will be in no case to make an- other attempt to invade Egypt. With-•'••"'out command of the sea, the enemy's men in Tripoli must be fairly well cutoff from their base, and we shall be able to deal with them when the pro- •••.per time comes. In the meantime R.A.F. bombers keep up then: heavyraids on the harbour and neighbouring '• aerodromes of Tripoli itself. A squad-•ron of the Royal Australian Air Force is operating in Western Cyrenaica, andone day recently it shot down three Me IIOS and three Ju 88s without lossto itself. ' Help to the Navy AN interesting detail about the ,.•*"* Battle of Cape Matapan which has since been published concerns the partplayed by the R.A.F. First, Sunder- land flying boats out on patrol on thsday before the battle, i.e. on March • 27th, spotted some of the enemy ships :and reported accordingly. Besides giv- ing this vital information to AdmiralCunningham, the report also brought the Blenheims on to the scene. It hasbeen recorded that they scored hits with their bombs, but a new detail is^-that after dropping all their bombs the Blenheims continued to make dummyruns over the enemy ships, which caused them to take continuous avoid-ing action and so lose a lot of speed. The Fleet Air Arm and the Navyhave apparently cleared the Red Sea of Italian destroyers, five of whichhave been either sunk by our action or scuttled by their crews. In conse-quence, President Roosevelt has now declared the Red Sea open to Ameri-can shipping. This will mean a great saving of time in the transport ofmunitions from America to our forces in Africa and the Mediterranean. Some details of the great fight forKeren have begun to reach this country, and the following account ofthe close co-operation of ground troops and aircraft will be read with interest. '' At one minute to seven on the •<morning of Saturday, 15th March," writes an eye-witness, "a pilot ob-server and rear gunner peered over the side of their aircraft at the still for-
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