Oct, 2.
When it is officially announced that Ger~ amarly lost 222 aeroplanes in her attacks on Britain last week, and no fewer than 2,000 during the two months during which the Blitzkriea has been raging, it needs to be remembered that these are minimum figures. They represent the casualties inflicted upon the enemy which have been capable of the closest checking, and naturally do not include those machines which for one reason or another have come to their end as a result of British "ction, but outside the scope of British observation, "It is interesting to note that on July 24 the aeronautical correspondent of "The Times," a most conservative observer, estimated that since the beginning of the war Germany had lost between 4.000 and 5,000 machines at least, so that including the Known casualties of the last two months the total must now be between 6,000 and 7,000 aeroplanes of all classes. The same cor~ respondent also expresses the opinion, which is probably correct, that despite these losses. the enemy's aircraft resources are practically When it comes to assessing the loss of personnel an estimate of two-and-a-half persons as the average per machine has been accepted as accurate, which means thet the Germans have lost between 15,000 and 17,000 trained aviators in all branches, and, us' aeroplanes can be completed far quicker than airmen can be trained, it is in this connection that the enemy losses have been 80 particularly heavy. It was announced that the Germans possessed large numbers of trained men at the commencement of the war, but experience has shown that they had not been trained so efficiently as have been the British, and that added to the general superiority' of the British machines over the German was the fact that the men fighting them were vastly better than their opposite numbers. It is to those two main factors that British success in fighting off the raiders: is to be attributed, and the fact that the German Luftwaffe has during these past two months sustained the first major rebuff since it crushed Poland.
The air action against Britain hax the present presented two aspects. Di August the German sirforee concents upon British aerodromes in an endeavour to smash RAP, fighter opposition, 'Though the Germans fancied they had accomplished this, the fact is that they did not, as is proved by the swiftness with which' British fight squadrons can take the air and beat off the raiders. In the belief that they had succeed ed, however, they commenced the bombing of London on September 7, first, of military objectives, and later indiscriminately in the hope of producing that degree of disoryanization necessary to the successful carrying out thei next step in the plan for the invasion of Britain. Testing out their belief last week with another mass daylight attack, for the third time th two months their large formations suffered another major defeat. They have not succeeded in securing control of the air over Britain. Indeed it may almost with justice be said that at no time have general balance the air fighting over Britain may be said to have been wholly in favour of the defender The German high command is, conse~ quently, faeed with the problem, which must increase in urgency as the months pass, of how to gain the much desired superiority, not only in numbers but sise in ability. With out it_attempts at invading Britain are doomed to failure. Nor can Germany, i the view of a high RAF. officer whose opinion is quoted do any real, tasting damage to Brit tial "aveas, which fighters, guns and balloons ce 0 successfully. prote Int would be premature to insist that the German com-ud is wholly unable to solve the problem vehieh they i, though the aificulties they have to encounter ave already rear, and the British air effort is so
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.