World Battlefronts: BATTLE OF BRITAIN: The Cats Keep Coming

A small, red “alert” sign flashes on movie screens. In smoky, crowded London pubs the beer-drinking, the talk go on. Occasionally an American soldier wanders outdoors to watch the lightning of the guns. Diners at the Savoy barely hear, above the music of Carroll Gibbons’ orchestra, the noise of the sirens and the batteries. British night fighters go up, their new searchlights probing the night. Londoners tell each other: “It will be all over in a half-hour.” Occasionally, they pay for their calm carelessness with their lives.

Air Secretary Sir Archibald Sinclair last week gave a name to the Nazi nuisance raiders: he called them “the scalded cats.” Usually streaking in at high altitudes, singly or in small groups, Me 410 and FW 190 fighter-bombers cross the Channel from France in 16 minutes or so, dump their bombloads anywhere, skedaddle for home. These in-&-out tactics give the Fighter Command and anti-aircraft guns slight chance to strike back, but the R.A.F. has bagged more than 6% of the intruders. (British Mosquito bomber losses over Germany: less than 2%).

The “scalded cats” keep millions of wardens and fire watchers on the job. do little actual damage. But when the Nazis see that British invasion ports are crammed, bigger “cats” may come in scalding force.