It_scems fairly obvious that Hitler must have flown into one of his paroxysms over the bombing of the becthall at Munich and ordered vengeance no matter at what cost. -Henee the tragedy of Coventry. It was a more than usually brutal deed as the Germans flew so high to escape the A. A. guns. that aiming was impossible. And in fact one yatiiers that the factories escaped far better than the rest of the city. The destruction of the beautiful old 14ih century Cathedral is the sort of thing that only a German would do, Coventry will of course increase the demand for reprisals of the same sort, And one goes about London seeing the damage done to churches and historic buildings such as the Temple, one feels strongly moved to. join in the ery. But we are not barbarians and what the RAF. is doing hurls Hitler more than if we blew up Cologne Cathedral.
For example, Mamburg is possibly more bombed by the RAP, than any place in Germany except the Hamm railway yards. (Our airmen are absolutely bored with being. sent to Hamm,)* Hamburg is the second greatest industrial city in Germany with a population of over 1,125,000 people. Its dockyards have produced some of Germany's proudest ships. Most of them are unusable now. The great vegetable oil works, the big est in Germany, are a ruin. So is the Phoenix rubber tyre factory—warchouses stand roofless, railway trafic is disorganized, power plants cannot supply electricity to the Yow factories still working. These details have reached England from a trustworthy source, with the further report that the Nazis are moving to Poland such of Hamburg's Taetories ax have escaped the RAF.
This!
worth more than bombing any number of Alfenceless civilians The attack on Taranto and destruction of Mussolini's men-of-war has brought of son Interesting details of the aerint torpedo with which the attack was made. Launching one of these torpedoes is a far more dificult and nerve-wracking task than dive-bombing. The pilot must dive to within 60 ft. of the water, if not lower, and then release his torpedo exactly at the moment of flattening out, must be absolutely indifferent to anti-air= craft fire, and the least error in timing the release of the torpedo means a miss and the waste of £3,000.
'Once in the water the torpedo travels' by its own power.
As far back as in 1916 Great Britain was experimenting with aerial torpedoes, but their weight is considerable; a 21 in. torpedo. carries 500 1b. of T.N.T. and the problem was (0 get the plane to rise when loaded. Now the Fairey Fulmar does it with ease, even from the short run available on an aircraft carrier. We are said to have four different aireract that will carry aerial tor~ bodoes. The Germans have only two. Of course conditions at Taranto were perfect, the ships lying in open and perfectly calm water, the sort of thing an airman prays for.
Apropos of bombs here ix an illustration of the law at its best, Mr, Leighton-Morris, who lives in Jermyn Street, had been told by' his doctors that he has only three months to live, He therefore decided that whether he lived three months, three minutes or three] seconds was immaterial if he could first do something of service to his country. Some days ago the house adjoining his flat was struck by a time bomb. Mr. Leighton-Morris immediately climbed over the roof, found the hole, got down into it, found the bomb, picked it up and took it out In the adjoining Green Park.
But it seems that no unauthorized person inay touch a time bomb. So Mr. Leighton~ Morris. was charged at Bow Street with the heinous offence of risking his own tite, and possibly saving the lives of several other actually fined £100 or three canment. He said he would 40 to prison but was allowed a week fo think Parliament got on its hind legs. But newer to questions the Prime Minister hintes. that something would be done to pre vert this iniquity. Now the fine nas been reduced to £5, which Mr. Leighton-Morris says he will pay. But even so, why fine' such a brave deed at all? Had Mr. Leighton Morris been wearing any sort of uniform, it isa medal he would have deservedly got, not a fine, While M. Molotov talked in Berlin with Hitler and Ribbentrop (the course of negotia-ions must have been much helped by the fact that the RAF. kept M. Motolov's quests at the Russian Embassy sheltering there till 2.20 am.), Mr, Maisky, the Soviet Ambassa~ dor, was completing eight years of service in London. When he first came in November 1912, he was a political refugee so poor that he could not raise the requisite £5 for admission. He only had £3. But at length, on proving that he was a member of the Russian Social Democratic Party, he was admitted. Just 20 years later he came Wack as Am-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.