A NEW PHASE IN THE AIR
By OUR AIR CORRESPONDENT
ANEW phase of the war in the air is about to begin. It will probably turn out to be as distinctive and as separate from what goes before and what follows as was the phase which ended with the collapse of France and that of the mass bombing attacks on this country by day—which culminated in the mag- nificent victory of the Fighter Command last summer.
For the past four months the German Air Force has been carefully husbanding its strength, so badly shattered in the autumn. While it has maintained night-raids against this country the main force has been nursed back into something like its previous order. Only two of the six Air Fleets of the Luftwaffe have been in constant action against this country throughout the winter. The rest has been kept in the back- ground, and some of the time has certainly been spent in turn- ing over to new types. Now with the approaching return of good weather we must .expect more intensive operations. We are better prepared to face them than we have ever been, as well as to carry the war on into Germany. Air operations are likely to overshadow all else this spring.
Hider based all his hopes of world-power on the building up of his vast Air Force, which would at one and the same time form a spearhead for the German Army, and take: the place of a powerful navy. We can trace the course of these tactics, worked out long before the war in the campaign in Poland, in the invasion of Norway, and in the -smashing of resistance in Holland and France. Exulting in these triumphs, the Luft- waffe flung itself eagerly against Britain, to be thrown back by the first well-ordered fighter opposition it had met. It was forced to fight its battles independently, without that co- operation with ground forces on which it had depended in the previous campaigns.
The Germans have learned those lessons, and now we can see the further development of the original strategy in the recent actions in the Mediterranean and in the attempted air and under-sea blockade round our coasts. When the Italian Air Force had proved its impotence against the aeroplanes of the Middle East Command Hitler obviously saw his opportunity to gain both a political triumph and a possible military success. By throwing his squadrons of Junkers single-motor dive- bombers into Sicily he gained control of Italian bases, he seized the opportunity to employ air-power against sea-power where the sea-power was in a position of the greatest strategic disad- vantage, he hoped to establish some ascendancy in the Mediter- ranean, and he hoped to inflict damage on the British Fleet which would have repercussions nearer home. Still further, he was able to employ for this adventure the obsolescent Junkers Ju 87B dive-bombers which had shown themselves to be such easy meat to the British fighters, but more formidable to ships far from bases for air-protection. To the German mentality all this must have looked very attractive. But they reckoned without the long-range bombers of the R.A.F., which had been flown out to the Mediterranean when Italy invaded Greece. Vickers-Armstrongs Wellingtons raided the German bases in Sicily, and destroyed many of the dive-bombers on the ground, and temporarily checked their operations.
Nevertheless, we must expect to have a harder fight in this narrow Sicilian Channel before we can finally expel the Germans from Italian soil. Convoys must be brought through this than strip of water, which is only some So miles wide at the narrowest part. They are essential to the maintenance of our offensive from Egypt. As yet that neck of water is out of range of our fighters flying from the nearest aerodromes we can command. For the present the Navy must carry its own air- protection with it, and we can look confidently to it to meet the need.
On one other shore the Luftwaffe is trying to establish exactly the same tactics in its efforts to do duty for a powerful navy.
Big four-motor Focke-Wulf Kurier bombers, developed from the civil Condor and stationed at Bordeaux, are ranging over the Atlantic off the Irish coast in the hope of intercepting and sinking any British ships which may cross their path The 'Empress of Britain' was one victin1 of an interception of this sort. Big bombers have a range of more than 2,000 miles. They use it not only to sweep far into the Atlantic, but in this process to fly up from Bordeaux, and round the North of Scotland, to land in Norway. They return in the opposite direction. Our own bombers have much impeded these activities of the enemy by bombing their bases in France and in Norway. Before long we may have long-range fighters which will be able to deal with them in the air as well.
These operations by the enemy in the Mediterranean and over the Atlantic, although nuisance enough in themselves, are nevertheless only diversions while the main attack is pre- pared. There is no doubt that Germany is growing desperate, and will fling in her whole power in an effort to end the war by early summer. Last summer in the assault on Great Britain the Luftwaffe reckoned without the strength of the Fighter Command. This time the Luftwaffe may reckon without the might of the Bomber Command, which, despite nearly a year of continuous action, is now stronger and better equipped with men and machines than it has ever been.
Something of this growing power was shown by the daylight attacks on French bases during the last spell of good flying weather. As new and faster types of day-bomber come into service these daylight raids can be extended in area and in effect. Powerful fighter-escorts can be provided for the attacks on the nearer objectives, and the same feature which was used to defeat the day-raids of the enemy can be used to ensure the success of our own. Already the Fighter Command has turned from pure defence and, with confidence born of its mounting numbers, as well as still higher quality, has resumed the offensive patrols over enemy territory for which its forbears of the R.F.C. earned so much renown. In the coming battles that question of quality is likely to prove as decisive as it did last summer.
Both the Hurricane and the Spitfire have been improved during the winter, and will be seen in action with new and more powerful power plants and armament. The shell-firing cannon will offset any advantage the Germans might have reckoned to achieve by the armour-plate with which they have loaded their aeroplanes. Incidentally, the Luftwaffe Kerns to vary the thick-. ness of the armour carried according to the rank of the airman protected by it. For instance, the equivalent of a Squadron Leader in the German Air Force is protected by 13 ram. of steel plate, whereas a mere Pilot OffiCer has to be content, or at least make do, with but 8 mm.
Our new fighters, the Hawker Tornado, developed from the Hurricane, but with nearly twice the power, and the Westland Whirlwind, are likely to prove as much superior to the new . machines the enemy has in store as were the Hurricanes and Spitfires of last summer. In offensive action as well as in defence the striking power of the R.A.F. will be much in- creased. The new Short Stirling four-motor bomber, for in- stance, is nearly twice the size of the Vickers-Armstrongs Wellington which has borne the brunt of the night-bombing this winter.
In both attack and defence we can face the trials of the coming spring with even more confidence than at any time in the past. With the great Empire Training Scheme now well under way, and sending its first fruits to this country, with our own production soaring despite all the efforts of the enemy, with the arsenal of America ranged behind us, this summer should hold in store a still greater reverse for the Luftwaffe than the decisive defeat it suffered last summer.
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