Victory in the Air
The R.A.F. has continued its astonishing record of success against the German massed daylight air-raids. The first of these raids was on August 6th, and from then until the end of the month the Germans lost in them 1,031 aeroplanes as against 279 British, while from the British only 133 pilots were lost. September has opened with a daily repetition of the same process. It is true that the figures, though still heavily in the R.A.F.'s favour, are a little less so than they were. That is probably due to a .diminished use by the Germans of the slow and clumsy Junkers machines. Yet the protracted air-battle (for it is really all one struggle spread out over many days, like one of the great land-battles of the last war) may well come to take rank among the world's decisive conflicts. That Hitler had worked out a perfectly serious plan for invading and conquering Britain this autumn seems fairly certain. That it rested, like all his military and naval plans, on the assumption of a crushing German air superiority, may be taken for granted. The defeat of his aeroplanes means the collapse of his plan and the returning prospect of a long war, such as he knows Germany cannot face. It is cheering, yet not surprising, to notice how in one country after another over- seas the intelligent onlookers who two months ago were eager to back Germany for victory are now swinging round again to back Great Britain.
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