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Aviation History
1943
1943 - 1640.PDF
•66o FLIGHT JUNE 24TH, 1943 Behind the Lines»* Service and Industrial News from the Inside of Axis and Enemy' occupied Countries Gliding THE Rumanian Under-Secretary forAir announced on the 18th inst. that gliding schools are accepting candi-dates fiom 16 to 24 years"oi age for free training. Board and lodgings are alsoprovided at the expense of the Govern- ment, which hopes in this way to buildup cadres for its depleted air force. A.A. Gun A CCORDING to a German report, the A A.A. units of the Luftwaffe in the West and on the Eastern front have been supplied with a new multiple machine- gun. This gun is said to be a quick- firing type, suitable for defence against high-flying aircraft and employing 40-mm. projectiles. Jap Labour— T'HE Japanese Minister, Suzuki, statedin a Press conference that since the war 3,000,000 additional workers have been employed in the Japanese war in- dustry. —and Gliding IT is officially stated from Tokyo thatgliding and the manufacture of gliders are becoming increasingly popu-lar witt Japanese university, college and secondary school students. Since thewar the construction of sailplanes and gliders has become a compulsory subjectin the curriculum of some technical schools. According to a report by theJapanese Ministry of Education, 1,151 schools are encouraging their studentsto practise gliding, and a total of 1,444 gliders are owned by them. At the out-break of war gliding construction was limited to 602 schools, owning a com-bined fleet of 700 gliders. Production T a meeting at the Berlin Sportpalast- Dr. Goebbels and Armament Minis- ter Speer gave some information on theGerman home front. According to Goeb- bels 3,500,000 additional workers havebeen absorbed in the industry. Among the details given by Speerthere was the significant statement that ."The German armament industry is, toa large extent, safe from air attacks be- cause its establishments are widely scat-tered ; the shifting 6F the industry goes on all the time." He further assertedthat the damage done to the two dams is of a temporary character and "has notinterrupted production for a single moment." Attempting to show the progress ofthe armament industry, Speer adopted the system of percentage increases, whichis, to say the least, an ambiguous method. Thus the average monthly pro-duction of railway engines is said to have THE FIAT R.S.14 SEAPLANE. Powered with two Piaggio P.XI RC.40 engines of 1,000 h.p. for take-off it has a maximum speed of 220 m.p.h. at 13,120ft. increased by 300 per cent, on the 1941output, the production of heavy flak guns by 315 percent, since 1941, and themonthly output of machine guns by 70 per cent. It is significant, however, that,when referring to the Luftwaffe, Speer regained from using even the percentagevalues. He merely stated ' that '' since figuresin this field can give the enemy advance indications of the important change-overin the industry it can only be said that this branch of war production, under thepersonal leadership of Goering, has in- troduced in the past year many newtypes which are already in production, and the number of aircraft produced inMay represents by several times an in- crease over the average output in I94r." From Vichy France THE Vichy Secretariat-General f6r AirDefence announces that all Air Force N.C.O.s wht> were demobilised after thearmistice and are now free and willing to join air defence units should report attheir local administrative centres. Explanation PEKMAX official propaganda is now vJ trying to cash in on the dispersal of the industry. The locational distribution of the industry, which is known to have been going on for some time, is now boosted up in an attempt to show Ger- many's immunity from air attacks. Here is a typical example from a German propaganda broadcast: "The German armament industry does not possess a single colossal plant for production of both weapons and ammunition; there- fore, -the vulnerability of Germany's armament industry to enemy air raids is very slight. "In casts where large plants are im- perative for speedy and economical pro- duction, they have been erected in areas which the enemy air force cannot reach or even discover. Many former indus- trial plants recently bombed by Anglo- American airmen were nothing but empty buildings from which machineryhad been removed to other localities a year or two ago. Every factory stillworking in the so-called exposed areas of Western Europe has-been duplicatedmany times over in other parts of Europe. No matter how many bombs 'may fall on any part of Germany, the rhythm of production continues at evengreater speed and efficiency." Talking About Nerves /TSHAT the German man-in-the-street is -»- increasingly getting nervous aboutpossible future war developments, is evi- dent from an article in a German daily." When will things start moving in the east; will they ever start there; and if-not, where?, What are our U-boats doing just now? " When shall we hitEngland in the air? " is said to bjp asked by every Schultz and Moeller.^ " Waiting is not easy for some of us,"says the writer, and adds : " This is com- prehensible after four years of war whichhave left their traces, to which the series of blows*we had to suffer last winter inthe east and recently in Africa and at the present moment by the intensified airwarfare should be added. Waiting is a bitter trial in the bombed districts." Guerillas ACCORDING to information from •£*• neutral sources a detachment of Polish partisans has set on fire a large sawmill at Rzesna, which provides timber for' the German aircraft indus- try. Another unit ignited an oil well and oil stores at Ustrzyki Dolne. In Lubhn, where the aircraft works previously con- trolled by the Polish Government are situated, Polish guerillas damaged the electrical works which provide the cur- rent for the local airfield. Work had to be interrupted for three days. Another guerilla unit, the '' Mickie- wicz Group," fought a German punitive expedition in that area. The Germans had to use aircraft, three of which were destroyed and one damaged.
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