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Aviation History
1944
1944 - 1432.PDF
44 FLIGHT JULY I3TH> IQ44 COUNTERING THE AIR TORPEDO the balloons) will be substantially increased. At present the launching rate averages about 150 a day, and the toll taken is already high. One final point should be remembered by those who may be tempted to criticise the effectiveness of A.A. fire, and it is this: When dealing with normal aircraft it has a deterrent effect which is ruled out in the case of the robot. THAT the people of Southern England and in par ticular those living and working in the London area have again to be grateful to the R.A.F. was made clear by the Prime Minister when he presented his state ment on the air torpedo in the House of Commons last Thursday. For he disclosed how, once the existence of the menace had been ascertained, counter measures were at once embarked upon which not only delayed the launch ing of the attack by some six months, but greatly minim ised its weight when it finally began exactly a month ago to-day. In the Battle of Britain in 1940 it was the fighter pilots —the Few—who saved us from the Luftwaffe. This time it has been the combined efforts of reconnaissance and bomber aircrews which have sought out and hammered the launching sites while the fighter pilots of A.D.G.B. have dealt with a large proportion of the comparatively small number of "doodle bugs" the Hun has managed to send against us. Nor must it be forgotten that airmen of the U.S.A.A.F. have been helping to an increasing extent in the bombing of the enemy installations and the shooting down of the air torpedoes themselves. " During the early months of 1943," Mr. Churchill said, "we received, through our many and varied intelligence sources, vague reports that the Germans were developing a new long-range weapon with which they proposed to bombard London. ' 'At first our information led us to believe that a rocket weapon would be used. Just over one year ago the Chiefs of Staff proposed to me that the Joint Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Supply should be charged with the duty of studying all intelligence as it came in and reporting what truth, if any, there was in these re ports and advising the Chiefs of Staff and the War Cabinet as to counter measures. '' The House will realise that the enemy took all pos sible precautions to conceal his designs from us. Not withstanding, as a result of searching investigations by agents and aif reconnaissance, we had by July, 1943, suc ceeded in locating at Peenemunde, on the Baltic, the main' experimental station both of the flying bomb and the long-range rocket. '' In August last the full strength of Bomber Command was sent out to attack these installations. The raids were costly on account of the great distance to Germany which had to be taken, and- very great damage was done to the enemy and his affairs, and a number of key German scientists, including the head scientist, who were all dwell ing together in a so-called ' Strength-through-Joy ' estab lishment, were killed. '' These raids delayed by many months the develop ment of bringing into action of both these weapons. "About this time we had also located at Watten, in the Pas de Calais, the first of the large structures which appeared to" be connected with the firing of a long-range rocket. This site was very heavily attacked as long ago as September, and has been under continuous treatment since by the heaviest weapons carried by the British and American Air Forces. We may perhaps conclude with a true story from one of the gunsites visited. In a house not more than 50 yards away from the guns there lives an old lady of 85, not by any means in the strongest of health even for her advanced years. But she refused to leave her home, and, so far from being upset by the shooting, delights in sitting at her window to watch the battle. 1 We also carried out a most thorough air reconnaissance of the whole of the North-west of France and Belgium. This was an immense task, and not without its cost, but in the result we discovered in October last that in addition to the large structures of the Watten type, other structures in greater number were being erected all along the French coast between Havre and Calais. We found eventually that about 100 of these rather smaller sites all along the French coast between Havre and Calais were being erected, and we concluded that they would be the firing points ""^ for a jet-propelled projectile which was smaller than the rocket to which our thoughts had at first been turned. All these hundred firing points were continually bombed since last December, and every one of them was destroyed by the R.A.F., with the wholehearted assistance of the growing United States air power. " If it had not been for our bombing operations in France and Germany and the counter-preparations in which we indulged, the bombardment of London would no doubt have started perhaps six months earlier, and on a very much heavier scale. Under the pressure of our counter measures the enemy, who felt among other impulses the need of having something to boast about and to carry on a war of nerves in order to steady neutrals and satellites and assauge his own public opinion, developed a new series of prefabricated structures which could be rapidly assembled and well camouflaged, especially during periods of cloudy weather. Untiring and Relentless Effort "It is from these comparatively light and very rapidly erected structures that the present attack is being made. " What is the scale of this attack? "The hundred firing sites which were destroyed, assuming that the enemy production of the missiles was adequate, could have delivered a vastly greater discharge of high explosives on London than those which we have now. " I think it only just to the British and American Air Forces to record the delay and diminution in the scale of attack to which we are now exposed by their untiring and relentless efforts. '' Now the new series of firing points like the first have been heavily and continuously attacked for several months past. As new sites are constructed or existing ones repaired our bombing attacks are repeated. Every effort is made to destroy the structure and also to scatter the working parties and to deal with other matters concerned with the smooth running of this system of attack. " The total weight cf bombs so far dropped on flying bomb and rocket targets in France and Germany, including Peene munde and other places, has now reached about 50,000 tons, and the number of reconnaissance flights now totals many thousands. "The scrutiny and interpretation of the tens of thousands of air photographs obtained for this purpose has alone been a stupendous task, discharged by the air reconnaissance and photographic interpretation unit of the R.A.F. '' Now these efforts have been exacting to both sides, friend and foe, and quite a considerable proportion of cur flying power hcS been diverted for months from other forms of offensive activity. The Germans have for their part had to sacrifice f a good deal of manufacturing strength which could have increased their fighter and bomber forces working in conjunc tion with their hard-pressed Armies on other fronts." Mr. Churchill's Statement First Reports from Intelligence Sources : Immense Reconnaissance Task
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