During the same period day or dusk attacks were made on docks in Cherbourg, Borkum (with its seaplane base) and' Heligoland. To some exe tent these attacks were on naval bases and shipyards which may be regarded as a diversion of the major offensive which the bomber command is fighting against Germany. But this 4s an essential contribution to the de~ fence of Britain even should it mean the sparing of German industry until the Battle of the Atlantic is settled.
Moreover the strength of the RAF. bomber command is such that there are bombers to spare for the heavy raids on Berlin and other German cenes, while the support of Britain's sea power is continued.
IL must be remembered that Kiel, Bremen, Wilhelmshaven, Hamburg and Emden are not only ports or naval bases, They are also great Sustrial centres and would be attack ed also were the R.A.P, concentrating entirely on the destruction of the German war industry. There is also scarcely an instance of a heavy atok on shipyards or a naval base which did not also destroy some other vital parts of Germany's war machinery. Even raids on Italian submarines at Bordeaux have incidentally destroyed accumulated storks In the Battle of the Atlantic it cannot be expected that the effects of this concentration of bombing on naval bases and shipyards will
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