Shots at Aircraft
The search for common causes behind the recent attacks by Russians on the aircraft of other countries has not produced any result. Those qualities which, individually or in combina- tion, cause Russian pilots to shoot first and ask questions afterwards—suspicion, indiscipline, the zeal of the trained airman who has never before seen a living target, the murderous enthusiasm of the barbarian in charge of a machine —all these are familiar enough and the lives of the seven airmen who were killed last week when their, Lincoln bomber was shot down are not the first to be sacrificed to them. Despite the fact that the attacks occurred at widely separated points it is impossible to adduce any general order behind them except possibly an order to be on the alert, issued at the time of the death of Stalin and readily reconcilable with the anxiety in Moscow to discourage any attempt, inside or outside Russia, to take advantage of the situation. Consequently the protests which had to be, and were, made at the damage and loss of life caused by the attacks can hardly result in anything more than the brutal and boorish denials or silences which such protests have always met in the past. In the meantime aircraft which may come within . range of further attacks are to be armed to defend themselves, with the obvious consequence that any future encounter would be even uglier than the past ones. The most that can be hoped is that some news of these facts may penetrate to the men in the Kremlin, who have gone on harping on their desire for peace ever since the death of Stalin, and that one or more of them may perhaps realise the propaganda value—if nothing more—of making their deeds occasionally square with their words.
Previous page
