HE commentary below, which was broadcast over the B.B.C. on Saturday by Major Oliver Stewart, editor of the "Aeronautical Magazine," deals with the use by the Germans of air-borne troops and parachutists.
Major Stewart gives some general principles, underlying the use of air-borne troops, indicating both their strength and their weakness, with particular reference to the attacks on Crete.
A precis follows "From the questions people have recently put'to me it is clear there is no general understanding of how gliders work. I have not seen any of the German gliders, so I will con-@ne myself to general principles. First of all it must be understood that á glider is not a sail-plane—a sail-plane is a very light type of engineless craft with an enormous wing-span seemingly out of proportion to the length of the body. The sail-plane is released from a hill-lop by means of a cable and winch the pilot then seeks favourable currents of air, and long cross-country flights have been achieved. The craft can even gain altitude, and a "height of 5,000 feet has been attain-€d.—That's the sail-plane.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.