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Aviation History
1941
1941 - 2213.PDF
<%IRCRAFT ENGINEER FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE W>RLB •• FOUNDED t909 Editor C. M. POULSEN ..'• Managing Editor G. GEOFFREY SMITH Chief Photographer JOHN YOXALL Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices: DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, SE.I Telegrams : Trttditur, Sedist, London. Telephone : Waterloo 3333 (35 lines). 8-10, CORPORATION ST.. COVENTRY. Telegrams : Autocar, Coventry. Telephone: Coventry 5210. GUILDHALL BUILDINGS. NAVIGATION ST., BIRMINGHAM. 2. Telegrams: Autopress, Birmingham. Telephone: Midland 297 1 (5 lines). 260, DEANSGATE. MANCHESTER, 3. Telegrams: Iliffe, Manchester. Telephone : Blackfriars 4412. 26 B, REN FIELD ST., GLASGOW, C.2. Telegrams : Iliffe, Glasgow. Telephone: Central 4857. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Home and Abroad : Year, £3 10. 6 months, £1 10 6. Registered at the G.P.O. as a Newspaper. 3 months, 15s. 3d. No. 1709. Vol. XL. SEPTEMBER 25th, 1941. Thursdays, One Shilling. The Outlooks Cairo BombedT OWARDS the end of April last the British Govern- ment issued a warning to the Axis Powers that if they bombed either Athens or Cairo, cities full of invaluable monuments of history and art, the Royal Air Force would retaliate by bombing Rome, at its own convenience, and would continue to do so until the end of the war. Since then Athens has fallen into the hands of the enemy and is therefore safe from bombing— though an extraordinary and scarcely credible rumoui has reached Istambul that the Italians intend to erect on the Acropolis a monument dedicated to "Italian Victory." Cairo, however, was bombed a few days ago. It may be surmised that the orders for such a step did not originate with the Italians, for Mussolini, with all his faults, has a great respect for all that is comprised in the term archaeology. But the Germans are now in command of Italy and of all operations in the Mediter- ranean, and the modern Huns have no respect at all for art or anything else outside the scope of their war machine, judging by their actions in the past two years Ihey would not mind at all if the treasures of the Cairo museum, for example, were pulverised—nor would it greatly distress them if the result were to be the oblitera- tion of the many ancient buildings of Rome, such as th< Colosseum and the Arch of Titus. Egypt is still not a belligerent, and its Government has protested to Berlin and Rome about th<- bombing of Cairo. Everybody may form his own opinion as U what effect that will have on the Senior Partner of th< ^is. But the British undertaking stands. We quote the relevant passage from the Government's announcement on April i8th : "In view of the German threat to bomb Athens and Cairo, His Majesty's Govern- ment wish it to be understood that if either of these two cities is molested they will commence a systematic bomb- ing of Rome. Once this has begun, it will continue as convenient to the end of the war. The greatest care will be taken not to bomb the Vatican City, and the strictest orders to that effect have been issued." Spreading the WebE VEN without counting her conquests, Germany is a very large country. When Hitler began tc organise the country for war he naturally spread his munition factories as widely as possible about the country, but he could not dissipate the Ruhr. That area, together with certain ports such as Bremen and Ham- burg, must remain the most convenient targets for the Bomber Command of the R.A.F.. and naturally receive most attention. Flying farther aheld necessarily means taking on board more petrol and therefore a smaller weight of bombs. Our bombers can reach places in Italy and Poland, but nearer targets give a better return foi the effort expended. So it has happened that quite a number ot places in Germany have not received any visits from British night bombers, or only a few. Among them we may mention the Dornier factory at Friedrichs- hafen and the original Messerschmitt works at Augsburg, and there are many others. Most of the flying training schools have been established in Eastern Germany, and, of course, it would be very profitable to interfere with their work. Such enterprises depend on the numbers of the heaviest bombers which are available, and that
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