The losses of bombers on one or two days this
week—twelve Blenheims, as well as eight fighters, in Tuesday's daylight raid on Cologne, and thirteen bombers of various types in the night raids a few hours later on Berlin and other cities—have set a good many people wondering whether the results achieved are worth this sacrifice. There is no doubt, I think, that as such things are measured in air-warfare they are. The daylight raid was a dashing and audacious performance; when the Luftwaffe was attacking this country by day a year ago its daily losses ran up to a maximum of 185. As for the night raid, it is obvious from the number of centres attacked that our loss was far below the 10 per cent. that would cause the Air Staff to look grave. In the matter of results, moreover, there are two con- siderations, the actual damage caused—in the Cologne area it is believed to be immense—and the service done to Russia by compelling German fighters to defend German cities in- stead of attacking Russian bombers on the eastern front. The R.A.F.'s daylight sweeps over France help in the same way. The combination of day and night raids is a heavy test for German morale.
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