“NOT MUCH USE.”

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVII, Issue 9, 8 December 1926, Page 9

“NOT MUCH USE.”

AIR OBSERVATION POSTS. SAYS MR HANDLEY PAGE. LONDON, Dec. 1. That the observation posts which are scattered over the eastern counties of England are not much use is the opinion of Mr F. Handley Page, head of the aircraft manufacturing company. He says that the vital principle of aerial defence is to prevent enemy machines arriving. Out of 50 British squadrons 23 are equipped with obsolete machines, he declares, some being as old as 1916. This would place them at a disadvantage if they should meet modern machines, and their out-of-dateness, he says, is a contributing cause of the Royal Air Force casualties, which havo been unusually heavy this year in England. The futility of anti-aircraft guns was one of the grim jokes of the war. When the German Zeppelin and aeroplane raids over London and. the eastern counties were at their height, many people were injured by falling shrapnel, despite the sounding of maroons to warn the citizens that a barrage was about to begin. The hostile aircraft brought down in England were the victims of aeroplane attack, which involved heroic night Hying, while the “archies” were still blazing away.