Daily Post - 27.08.1941, Síða 2

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DAILY POST
is published by
Blaðahringurinn.
Editors: S. Benediktsson.
Sgt. J. I. McGhie.
Office: 12, Austurstræti, Tel.
3715, Reykjavík. Printed by
Alþýðuprentsmiðjan. '
Wednesday, Aug. 27, 1941
The Germans
in Iran
The ohieí podmt about the nevt'is
frcMn Inan today is that open of-
fiqia'l nesistance Ihas not tiaken
plaoe; that though looal opposi-
tion is being met iwitlh hy our
fionoes thene has been no rupttune
of diplomatdo nelat'ions w.iith the
Inanian govemment, ottr minister
nemaining at' his post in their
oapiital. <
The importance of this is that
it shows how far short of his
aims in this sector of the war
in Asia Hitler has fallen. For
long German infiltration has
been in progress in Iran, and
Hitler must have relied on the
fifth column thus established to
create rather more trouble for
us than now seems likely. In
fact it must be assumed that
under his universal policy of
total war his aim in Iran was
a complete conquest by blitz-
krieg, from without and from
within. But now, instead of
Panzer divisions and Heinkels
there appear over the frontiers
the men in kahki and the Blen-
heims and Hurricanes of the
R.A.F. For the second time in
this war (the first was in Syria)
a German fifth column finds
itself in a considerable pre-
dicament. Should it strike now
for honour’s sake (assuming
that a fifth column has any), or
should Iran be written off as a
failure and both safety and
further usefulness to the Reich
sought in flight? In a few days
we shall know which was chos-
en, but the indications now are
that it was the second, the easy
course. If so it will prove once
again that the German is not
prepared in this war, as he was
not prepared in the last, to
fight an honourable rearguard
action against odds that pre-
cluded his winning it. Instead
he scuttles.
London, August 26th.
The Norwegian Admiralty
has announced the loss of a
destroyer manned by a
Norwegian crew.
DAILY POST
Oari OImob says
uThe Russian A!r Force
is an Enigma No Longer”
» - i.
The Russian Air Force has always been an enigma. Its size, composition, and relative efficiencyr
as well as the extent of the aircraft industry behind it and its progress and design, has been °ne
of the best kept secrets of all time. But is a secret no Ionger. Our contributor tells how RusS,a
during recent years has built up an air force ‘organised much on the samfe lines as the Luftwa^®
and as.powerful in numbers ... an immense and potent force which is seriously crippling ^azl
striking power’.
The Germans appear to have
known the most about this
mysterioús subject. As, indeed,
they ought, for they fathered
the Russian Air Force. In 1919,
to dodge the provisions of the
Treaty of Versailles (and to get
ready for a new war before the
ink Was dry on the Peace
Treaty of the last) the Reichsr-
wehr chiefs started building
planes in Russian factories.
Hundreds of the best German
technicians and designers were
sent to Russia. German capital
from secret Reichswehr funds,
and from the coffers of Krupp,
Daimler-Benz, Gotha-Werke
and other aircraft firms flowed
over the frontier to get a new
aircraft industry going. Combat
pilots of 1914—18 and senior
officers of the German Air
Force signed on in hundreds to
act as instructors and ‘air ad-
visers’ to the Air Arm that
Trotsky was building up for the
Red Army. At one time, Goer-
ing, in Sweden, was acting as
a salesman for Russian built
warplanes to German design.
GERMAN FACTORIES IN
RUSSIA
This German infiltration
steadily increased up to 1937.
In that year Heinkel, Dornier,
Rohrbach, Daimler-Benz,
Focke-Wulfe and Junkers all
had factories in Russia, and in
dozens of State factories Ger-
man and Russian designers and
technicians were working side
by side. Large numbers of the
aircraft produced were no
doubt going to the Luftwaffe.
And the entire Russian aircraft
industry was all set, and many
factories tooled up, to make ex-
clusively German types.
Suddenly, towards the end of
1937, everything changed. The
Germans were politely thrown
out of Russia. Prominent de-
signers who had worked with
the Germans, like A. N. Tupo-
lev — who designed the ANT3,
a four engined 20-ton bomber—
went to gaol or ‘disappeared’.
And the whole industrý went on
to American or home-produced
designs for aircraft and éngines.
Why Stalin struck so swiftly
and drastically is still a-mys-
tery. What we do know is that
the Nazis who should have
known the most about Russia
guessed the worst of all. For
after six weeks of the first and
worst intensive blitzkrieg (on a
bigger scale than the attack
which smashed France in five
weeks) the Russian Air Force
was still intact and still func-
tioning with punch and vérve
after inflicting calamitous
losses on the Luftwaffe.
SCENIC ARTISTS MADE
DUMMY AIRFIELDS
Several things beat the Nazis
in their attempt to destroy the
Red Air Force before it could
get into action with the Rus-
sian Army. Multiple airfields
spread over great depth of
territory was one factor. The
lessons that Russia had learned
as a grandstand observer of the
assaults on Poland, Hollanú,
France and Britain was
another.
It is credibly stated, for in-
stance, that many Russian
‘aerodromes’ put cjpwn within
the ‘sterilised’ area behind the
new frontiers of 1919 were
‘dummies’. And that the Luft-
waffe at great cost in machines
and bombs and petrol succeed-
ed only in destroying some
thousands of papier maché air-
planes and plywood hangars. It
is now known that some of the
best film-set makers in the
Russian cinema industry spent
a year making those beautiful
dummy airfields.
But most of all it was the
quality and quantity of the
Russian aircraft, the skill of its
aircrews, and the resource and
ability of its Air Staff that beat
the Luftwaffe and gave the
world one of the biggest suf'
prises of this war.
RUSSIA’S SPITFIRE
To deal first with the
craft, their origin, types and
approximate quantities. Russi^
has six different types 0
fighters in its first-line
strength. Five are single-sea4'
ers; one, the 1.19 (X), is a W°'
seater fighter so heavily arme
that the second man is realiy
a gunloader.
All are of Russian desig11’
their ace designer N. N. P°^'
karpoff being responsible
most of them. All carry cannon
as well as multiple machine
guns. Those in the ‘I’ class haVe
a range of at least 700 ncule3
and the 1.19 is said to have a
400
oí
top speed of more than
miles an hour and a ceiling
nearly 40,000 feet.
This aircraft, which is better
than most in the other air
forces, has been in full Pr°
duction for about a year 111
some dozens of State factories-
Russia has ten standa1^
bomber types, including
dive-bombers. Two are of tl,e
multiple-engined type for loní^
range strategical bombing, an
the rest are specifically ^e
signed for close support V1
the Army. Again, all the botf1^
ers are of Russian design, a°
with the exception of TB3B an®
the CKB26, which owe s°nae'
thing to Junkers and Mart1^
respectively, are most origin
in plan.
Two of the bombers in

‘L’ class (numbers unkno^n
can carry a bomb load of near^
four tons and have a range 0
3,000 miles.
What is the first-line streng1
hal
the
of Russia’s Air Force? Mars
Voroshilov reporting to
Central Committee of ^
U.S.S.R. in 1939 said that
total bomb load carried ‘in oíf
flight’ had gone up from 2
(Continued on page
000
3.)