Warfare in Europe 1919–1938 by Geoffrey Jensen

Author:Geoffrey Jensen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

After the 1932 exercises, ADGB agreed that "the increasing speed of bombers and adoption of cloud flying tactics is likely to result in the defence being forced more and more over the Inner Artillery Zone."95 After those of 1933, ADGB held that present night bombers were "an easy prey to an efficient searchlight-cum-fighter defence," but when better ones arrived, "a new era of night bomber tactics will open. The night bomber aircraft with a good ceiling and high all round performance will be a very difficult task for the defence to handle," though not an impossible one. Again, fighters had easily intercepted the bulk of day bombers but missed most squadrons testing cloud flying and all those equipped with two new types, the Fairey monoplane and Vickers Vanoc, flying 125 mph at twelve and fifteen thousand feet. Even worse, with its silenced engines (emitting 20 percent of the decibels of the Virginia) and an altitude of fifteen thousand feet, the Hinaidi bomber frequently escaped the notice of every British intelligence source it overflew—sound mirrors, sound locators with skilled army personnel, or an entire Observation Group. Silencing of engines, Brooke Popham concluded, was "a most important matter, constituting as it does a valuable asset to the attacker and a serious handicap to the defence."

All of these indications of future developments, he noted, had to be seen in the context of present realities. Most interceptions occurred on the Inner Artillery Zone of the Aircraft Fighting Zone or seven to eight miles behind it, showing how

the defence is being driven backwards through the increasing speed of the bombers. . . . Consideration of Air Exercises held in this and in previous years points to the fact that it is time that the policy of the Air Defence of Great Britain was re-examined. It is possible that the present scheme and method of operation are still the most suitable but I am sure it would be wrong to assume that a plan worked out in 1923 is going to remain adequate for all time. ... It is not merely a problem of relative speeds but of absolute factors, some of which are invariable. The speed of the bombers is steadily increasing; on the other hand two other factors remain constant; firstly, the distance of LONDON from the coast and secondly, the time that must elapse between the aircraft being seen by observers and the defending aeroplanes leaving the ground.

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