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Aviation History
1942
1942 - 0170.PDF
64 FLIGHT JANUARY 22.\D, 194^: Command during the past year said of Malta that throughout the year it had been "a terror to Italian shipping, to the Italian and Sicilian ports, and to many places in North Africa, particularly Tripoli." As a result the Axis aircraft have lately been keeping up a continuous series ot raids on the island in the hope of blunting its teeth. The indications are that the enemy has lost far more aircraft on the airfields of Sicily than he has been able to destroy by attacking Malta. Doctrines have altered since the war began, and no longer do we think of air defence as a futile thing because "the bomber will always get through." We have learnt that well-organised air bases can continue to operate even when they are repeatedly raided by bombers, and that if one's air defence is good, one can proceed to air attack. The Prime Minister's Flight P ERHAPS civil flying may claim the safe return of Mr. Churchill from America as a feather in its cap, for he used a commercial Boeing flying boat belonging to British Airways. Civil air transport has a hard task at the moment to persuade the world that the * discovery of flight has been of benelit to the world, for millions of civilian sufferers have cursed the flying machine in the last two years : nd wished that Cayley, Stringfellow, the Wright brothers, and the rest of them had never been born. Yet, now that we are all in a horrible war and are grateful for everything which brings victory nearer, we must bless the invention which enabled our Prime Minister to come safely back from the American continent, where he has done much for the cause of victory and freedom. Future ages will count this flight as one of the greatest benefits which aircraft has conferred on mankind. We need not now worry as to whether the Germans would have violated the rules of war if they had found the flying boat Berwick and shot it down. They would certainly have done so if they could, and such a disaster would have been a heavy blow to the cause of freedom. But Mr. Churchill is safe home, and we are all pro foundly thankful. His conference with Mr. Roosevelt ought to hasten the day of victory. DAVY JONES' SHOCKER : Dropping a torpedo from a Coastal Command Beaufort. Up to recently torpedoes had to be dropped from a very low altitude, otherwise they were likely either to break in half on impact or leap out of the water and change direction.
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