Under the Full May Moon

At a night-fighter station somewhere in England one evening last week King George VI walked down a line of stalwart young pilots, standing at attention with glasses of sherry in their hands. After felicitations and a fighter's simple supper, the King was taken out on the field, where he examined Britain's best night-fighting planes, the Bristol Beau and the Douglas DB7 Havoc--bigger ships than the day fighters. They are two-seaters so that the pilot can concentrate on navigation, the gunner on spotting and shooting; twin-engined so that they would not be blinded by propeller reflection or by fiery exhausts right in front of their eyes; and with capacious fuel tanks so that the planes can stay up until dawn and not have to land in the risky light of sputtering flares.

Then His Majesty was accorded a privilege open to very few people besides Kings and Commanders: he saw the Air Force's hypersensitive spotting apparatus laid out before him. A large force of German planes was over England. The main attack, as it had been for six previous successive nights, seemed to be developing over Liverpool, one of the few British ports to be operating at nearly full capacity. Experts explained to the King how the night fighters operated. The Beaus went to the scene of action to try to get the planes coming in. In this Operations Room, wireless finders with vastly improved machinery and technique "vectored" the Beaus close enough to enemy planes to see them and attack. The Havocs shot out across the Channel and hovered over German airfields; then when the Jerries came home and dropped flares for a landing the Havocs leaped in to wreak their name, catching their opponents at stalling speed and in ticklish confinement. While the King was watching, the reports began to come in. One shot down, one probably shot down, another certain.

In that night 24 German planes were destroyed. That was a night record but it stood only two nights. During the terrible raid on London (see below) 33 were shot down. It was not merely the full moon which made these high scores possible. There is a full moon every month, and ever since the first of the year the bag had increased: In January, 15, in February, 15, in March, 47, in April, 90, and 124 in the first ten nights of May.

Meanwhile George VI's Bomber Command, under aggressive Air Marshal Sir Richard Peirse, has been expanding its program all along, until one night last week it was reported that over 300 planes had been sent out to enemy territory--almost as many as the Germans were using over Britain. But it still remained to be seen whether the R.A.F. would be able to make night mass raids almost as expensive as day raids, and perhaps too expensive. If they did, it was likely that the Germans might perfect a similar technique, and the war in the air might become a stalemate.

The London Daily Telegraph's air correspondent made a significant observation last week: "In daylight enemy activity has consisted almost entirely of reconnaissance, which would seem to indicate that a resumption of large-scale day raiding may be expected shortly." Or invasion.

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