World War: BATTLE OF BRITAIN: Worrisome Lull

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This week London marked a record three weeks in which not a bomb had been dropped on the hub of Empire. The whole country had been relatively spared during that time, and, as has always been the case, the respite worried the British more than steady raids.

What did the longest lull on record mean?

Those Britons who have not broken their habits of optimism liked to think that the R.A.F.'s high bag of night attackers may have caused the Germans to take pause. In May the British claimed 156 German night raiders, compared to 90 in April, 47 in March, 15 each in February and January. But even this rapid progression was probably not enough in itself to deter the Germans, for the bag never ran higher than about 10% of attacking planes, and that only on a few fair moonlit nights.

The only major German activity during the pause was reconnaissance. Day after day a few of the enemy came over, usually at tremendously high altitudes, apparently to observe, to photograph, to chart. What would be done next in Britain, only Hermann Goring and his boys could say.

There was the possibility that the Germans were preparing for renewed, intensified attacks on shipping facilities, or mass daylight raids at such high altitudes that British fighters would not be much use. Or the next German effort might be an all-out campaign against the R.A.F. and all its bases—an attempt to achieve that superiority in the air without which invasion remains just a dream.