Lack of Dive-bombers
How long was it going to be, asked Sir J. Wardlaw Milne in last Tuesday's debate, before the Government learnt that dive-bombers were essential in modern war? Sir Archibald Sinclair gave part of the answer when he said the following day that it is "ready and willing and anxious to employ dive-bombers as soon as they are delivered to the R.A.F., but Sir Stafford Cripps had to admit later that though orders for this type were placed in 1940 no great number had been delivered yet "for reasons which he could not go into in public." It must now be regarded as a fact estab- lished by the enemy that dive-bombers are invaluable under certain circumstances for attacks upon ships, and that in the absence of hostile fighters they have great moral effect in land warfare. It was by dive-bombing attacks south of Crete last week that the destroyers 'Lively,' Kipling ' and Jackal' were sunk, and it was by dive-bombers launched from aircraft-carriers that 'Cornwall' and Dorsetshire ' were destroyed in the Indian Ocean. If it had been possible to use dive-bombers supported by fighters against the German cruiser ',Prinz Eugen ' last Sunday night, it is unlikely that she would have escaped complete destruction—though it may be admitted in such a case that a target so distant from a base does not present the most favourable opportunity for their use. The failure to inflict a total loss may more particularly be attributed to the fact that the Beauforts, so gallantly piloted, were unable to dis- charge torpedoes heavier than 58-inch. If and when a large-scale offensive is opened up on the western front it is to be hoped that we shall be well supplied with this valuable offensive weapon.—of which the Germans made such effective use on that front in 5940.
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