The War in - the Air In his speech on the
air estimates on Tuesday, Sir Archibald Sinclair made an impressive statement on the progress that has been achieved in the air and the strategic part it is to play in the coming general offensive. The picture that he drew culminated
in an account of the R.A.F.'s activities in what is really the first round in the combined attack on the European Continent. But his picture Was a comprehensive one, indicating the growing might of an organisation which had learnt the lessons of combined operations in fighting experience in the Mediterranean, which has been driving the U-boats from the sea in co-operation with the Navy, destroying enemy coastal transport, defending the home territory and carrying the war into enemy territory against military and industrial objectives. The Air Minister assured the House that methods of defence were perpetually being studied and improved, but quite rightly emphasised that in this, as so often in other spheres of war, an offensive is the best defence—an offensive such as the Air Force has been conducting with shattering blows against the factories which produce aircraft or parts of aircraft, destroying the enemy's air-power at the source. The combination of night and day air attacks and flights from British and from Italian air-bases has enabled the British and American Air Forces, operating frequently and on a colossal scale, to produce results which, Sir Archibald says, are not a matter of speculation. The destruction is "
measurable and progressive." The Luftwaffe is being progressively weakened in all its elements in such a way that Russia is already feeling the benefit and that we may be sure of overwhelming air supremacy when the time of invasion comes. The climax of actual invasion lies ahead, but the first stage of the attack is already on.
