IS BRITAIN DEFENDED ?
By NIGEL TANGYE
IN all but one important respect the Air Exercises of last week revealed the strength of our defences. A year ago they revealed our weakness. We can therefore with a certain justification, view the future of our homes and cities with some confidence, because the picture of inevitable destruction that they presented in the black days of last September has been consigned to the national box-room along with other faded relics.
That is not to say that our cities are immune from damage, but it does mean that that damage will be confined mainly to the initial stages of war, and that as the war progresses the defence will rapidly smother the attack. So long as raiders inflict any damage at all there is no room for com- placency, but there is ground for justified satisfaction in the great additions to our strength that have been effected in the past twelve months. It is this proved rate of greater security which entitles us to the measure of confidence already mentioned. The dead weight of pessimism that impeded our efforts twelve months ago has given way to a stimulus provided by the assured ultimate defeat of heavy raids, and this encourages us to perfect our weapons of defence so that the enemy's raiding power is smashed at the earliest possible stage of the war.
This argument is best illustrated by an example. It is certain that the German resources are such that they could, assuming weak opposition, maintain raids on Great Britain at the rate of 200 machines a day. Our Air Exercises showed that we could count on disabling at least ten per cent. of raiding bombers. Even if this reasonable estimate be halved it means that the raiding force would have to be renewed entirely by the end of three weeks. It means, to measure it in other terms, that an Officers Mess of zo pilots would be reduced to ro in as many days. In actual practice I admit that the same squadrons would not be engaged day after day, but the example serves to show the appalling casualty rate that the enemy must expect, a casualty rate that must destroy the stoutest morale in a very short time.
And there is nothing to show that the German is imbued with any substantial degree of morale. For six years now the German military airman has been led to believe that the Luftwaffe is invincible, that his equipment is far superior to that of any potential enemy, and that his skill is un- matched. As a result of this he has an arrogant self-confi- dence which will let him down badly when he encounters substantial opposition. The bearing of the Deutschland's ' crew when the vessel limped into Gibraltar after being hit by only two bombs from a Spanish Government plane showed this weakness. A Naval Officer who saw them told me that the crew looked as though they had just survived a major battle. Only six men had been killed. In citing this case I do not mean to reflect on the bravery of German personnel. They are victims of disillusionment, after being encouraged for six years in the elementary blunder of underestimating the enemy and being unprepared for reverses. But what is their loss is our gain, and in conse- quence the effect of our air defences will be greater than the actual efficiency of the defences warrants.
I began this article with a qualification; although the Air Exercises revealed the strength of our defences, they also showed up one important weakness. There is very great room for improvement in the searchlight batteries. To bring down a raiding aircraft it is first necessary to contact it. By day instruments and devices of great ingenuity have recently been developed, and these enabled the Fighter Command to record an unheard-of proportion of successful interceptions. But by night fighters are almost entirely dependent on the searchlights to show them where the enemy is. They are impotent if the searchlights fail to locate their flying targets. Once a bomber is located and held, it is almost a certain victim for the fighter, who can attack with his eight machine-guns after making an invisible approach in the darkness.
This failure on the part of the searchlight batteries to locate the raiders with any degree of success was the most valuable lesson to be derived from the exercises, and one which lends point to the recent public criticism that the batteries, consisting largely of keen, volunteer personnel, are not furnished with the requisite facilities for realistic prac- tice. It is earnestly to be hoped that this weakness will be remedied without delay. Indeed, in view of the delay that has attended the rectification of other faults and deficiencies in the past, the public should be assured that steps have been definitely taken to insure against the repetition of this failure.
If war were to break out now, the enemy raiders would take advantage of this weakness and reduce their daylight raids as much as possible and thus operate with maximum security. But to do this they would have to reconcile them- selves to indiscriminate bombing, as it is rarely possible to do precision-bombing at night ; there is not a River Thames shining in the moonlight near every desired objective. And though, no doubt, they would be prepared to waste thousands of gallons of valuable fuel and hundreds of tons of bombs, and endure many casualties, in return for the few rewards of indiscriminate bombing for a while, they could not keep it up. The cost of modern war is so vast that wastage of offensive effort cannot be countenanced. After the initial orgy of raids with merely enemy territory at large as the target, bombers will only be sent out if there is a reasonable chance of their getting through to predeter- mined objectives. Little more than a year ago a raider over this country from Germany would have had that chance almost any day, so weak and obsolete were our defences. Today every raid that is made will be a costly one. It may be added, moreover, that precision-bombing will be rendered even more difficult by the outrageously ingenious methods that we have devised to camouflage military objectives and aerodromes immediately war is declared.
We have our weather to assist us in our barrier of defence. When the weather is fine, our interception-machinery can work and our fighters and guns can contact hostile bombers. When the weather is bad, our guns cannot be laid on the enemy, and it is difficult for our fighters to engage them. On the other hand, the bombers will not be able to indulge in precision-bombing. They will not be able to creep below the clouds to see where they are, because of the balloon- barrage. It is true that the balloon-barrage is not every- where, but speaking as a pilot of fairly considerable profes- sional flying experience, I know that nothing would induce me to fly on any occasion at a height at which I might encounter this invisible death-trap. The height at which the barrage will be flown in war, and the degree of destruc- tion it can inflict on enemy raiders, is a close secret. All one can say is that the practice-barrages to which the public has now become accustomed give no indication of the efficacy of the barrage in war.
As far as our offensive power is concerned, it is difficult to reach conclusions of any accuracy in the absence of fuller knowledge than we possess of the defensive measures that will be taken against them. But it can, at any rate, be stated with positive assurance that the efficiency of onr bombers and their crews is up to first-class standard. This may sound a grudging estimate, but it is a sober one and should be compared with the situation eighteen months ago, when to fly in bad weather was the exception rather than the rule in the R.A.F., when there were blind-flying instruments fitted only to a few machines, and when the best of our machines in each class could be beaten in performance twice over by the equivalent machine in the Luftwaffe. The Royal Air Force now is equipped with a generation of aircraft just a year old, whereas the Luftwaffe, with few exceptions, consists of bombers and fighters that were in service three years ago. Until the Luftwaffe is equipped with a new generation of aircraft we are in a position of considerable advantage. Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding spoke with perfect sincerity when he said, at the conclusion of the Air Exercises : " I am satisfied with our progress, and I confidently believe that serious air attack on these islands would be brought to a standstill in a short space of time. . . . I should like to leave you with a feeling of quiet confidence in our defence organisation, while not neglecting wise precautions to minimise the effects of such attacks as do get through."
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