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Aviation History
1916
1916 - 0446.PDF
MAY 25, 1916. The Speaker, intervening, said : I have pointed out to the hon. Lord H. Cecil said he thought the attacks made on Colonel member for East Herts more than once that he is not entitled to Churchill had been very exaggerated, and that the policy he rise and interrupt hon. memb-rs in the course of their speeches. If pursued was one that could be justified by the consideration that he has a point of order to raise, thea he is entitled to raise it, but we were in time of day completely and in time of night partly he is not entitled to rise and ask questions or to give explanations. defended. He believed he expressed the better opinion among He must wait. flying officers when he said that an aeroplane at night was of leys Coined Churchill (continuing) said he could not understand the value even than the right hon. and gallant gentleman had repre- Government having gone the length of setting up the cumbrous sented. At night the security of the island must depend on anti- machinery of a judicial Committee of Inquiry, which would waste aircraft artillery, and it was not, therefore, a problem of aviation at the time of a great many bard-worked people at the present time all—it depended on the artillery of the country and not on the for the purpose of coping with the statements made in debate by a Plying Department. Referring to Mr. Joynson-Hicks's statements private member. s to the relative powers of the German and British flying servias Dealing with the proposals of the Government, he said the diffi- in Flanders, he thought the hon. member made a mistake in cullies from which our air organisations suffered arose from two relying to the degree he did on statements made by officers at the causes, first of all the duality of effort and organisation, and the front. When he relied on statements of officers who were not flying friction resulting therefrom. As an instance, he mentioned that themselves the opinion was not so good as that be could himself shortly after he left the Admiralty the resolve was to navalise the form at home. If it were a proof of superiority to fly over the lines Naval Wing from top to bottom, although it was almost entirely of your enemy, we had that superiority in much larger measuie staffed by young civilian pilots. But in the pursuit of this general than the German?. Flying officers were usually young men, and policy ot navabsation the speedomt ters in the machines, by which they had the defects of young men. Young men generally began the rate of flight was regulated and the position of the aeroplane by representing that everything was very badly done in the services located, which were in miles, were all converted intosp:edometers in to which they belonged. knots. The result over in France and Flanders, where we had numbers He had spent three months 25 miles behind our firing line, ard of aeroplanes conti:milly flying, was that you had the speedometers he had seen only one German air machine, which was brought in in kiiois, while the maps wnich the mtn were using were in miles or after having been captured. If he had been 25 miles behind the kilgmetres, and the naval pilot, with perhaps a Fokker machine in German lines he would have seen on every fine day several British the air above him, and bursting shells below him, had to go through machines engaged in long-distance reconnaissances. The Germars a careful and elaborate and difficult calcula'ion to convert the advertised their very biill ant airmen much more effectively than we miles into knots or back again to verify his position. Tnat was a did. Statements as to which was the fastest machine must be typical ins ance if a bundled small points of petty friction arising received with great reserve, for, except when a flight was over a from the undue paiticularism which it was hoped the Government short measured distance at a low elevation, nothing more thin a would make proposals li ally lo remedy. The second and much hasty impression could be formed. So rapi 1 was the development more serious difficulty was the lack of any commanding initiau've of the science that it was difficult to decide at what time to give any and design and over-riding authority in affairs of the air. Neither 'arge order for machines. To give an order for anything like of these difficulties would be remedied by the proposal?. They thousands of machines would be insanity, because long before the seemed to l>e a mere attempt to parry the demand for an thousands had been used up a new type would have come into use. Air Ministry by telting up another advisory committee with Tne most strenuous efforts had been made to overtake the advan- Lord I in/HI at its head instead of Lord Derby. The tage which the Germins gained in the second stage of the war in resident of the Board might advise the Admiralty and the regard to the fastest machines. In this war the battlefield was also War Office, but they need not take his advice, whether it a laboratory. Machines and apparatus had to be tested on the field was what you might cill advised advice or unadvised advice. If of action, and the High Command of the Flying Corps deserved it should be the latter they would be very unlikely to take it, special prais: for having given every possible opportunity to all liecause they would have had their own representative on the new officers to try improvements and develop ideas. Nothing had been Board, and if he dissented from the advice offered by the President said about the worderfu'lv good work in photography which had he would have the opportunity of b: ing the first in the field to offer b.en done by members of the Flying Corps. In regard to machine the views which he held. They were told the Board was free—free guns we had a decided sjper ority, and our Allies joined with us in like the rest of them, like Mr. Billing, free to discuss matters of bslieving that we bad the best type of machine gun. Much had general interest and general policy in relation to the air. That did been heard of the unhappy accidents that sometimes occurred. It not seem to him to amount to very much of a forward step. Fven seemed such a terrible waste that, not at the hands of the enemy, without all this it would be, he thought, open to Lord Curzon as a but by mishap, valuable lives should be lost. It was impossible to Cabinet Minister to discuss matters of a general policy in relation to show what was the exact cause of the accident when it occurred the air, to "in eichange ideas," and even to make suggestions and high above the ground, and the machine itself was smashed. Tre to raise th m in the Cabinet. And even without any action by Lord common cause alleged was that some mis ake was made by Cur/on it would have been possible for the Secretary for War and the the aviator — in which case no one could be held to First Lord of the Admiralty to have come together and arranged a blame but the man himself — or that there was some common policy or even to have set up a standing interdepartmental failure in the engine. He had examined into a number committee. Such a commi te?, with the goodwill of the departments of cases which Mr. Joynson-Hicks had adduced, and as far as concerned,would have achieved far more than any outside body with he had been able to judge was of opinion that they resul ed doubtful powers and with a critical faculty. Ei.her the arrange- from defects in the machine or from engine failure. In the majority ments now proposed would lead to nothing effective, which would of cases when mishaps occurred it was possible for the aviator 'o be the case if Lord Curzon -showed the great qualities of tact which come down without smashing his machine, but if he made a mistake were likely to be required from the holder of the new office, or t'-ey at the critical time the result might be fatal. No on; in such cir- seemed likely to lead to a first class row. If Lord Curzon was going cumstances like d to reflect on the avhtor, and the re'atives naturally to make bis work a reality it would be perfecly clear that very got the impression tvat the disaster was due to defective apparatus, grave differences and much friction would immediately be created. In general the apparatus was as tiustworthy as it could be made. In both cases they -would lead to delays. If it was ro; blame would attach to the officer in command for Could anyone feel that the proposals were put forward by the sending up an aviator with a d.fective machine. Or blame might Government in the sincere belief that they would open the way for attach to the air-mechanic in charge of the aeroplane who reported tin- conquest of aerial supremacy for this country? He could not that it was fit for flying. But in any such case the blame could not think it difficult—though, no doubt, they would hear of the difficul- r st with the War Office or the Royal Aircraft Factory, or any ties which stood in the way of an Air Ministry—either to devise or person responsible to that House. to bring into operation a unified organisation,, or to divide on The conception thar there was indifference to human life, or to natural and well-marked lines the services of training and supply the occurrence of accidents, on the part of the higher officers of the in mi the tactical employment of units in the other. In fact, he Royal Hying Corps was a mistake so flagrant that were it r.ot so proposed to the Prime Minister a scheme on those lines a year ago. grave it would be ludicrous. The utmost care was taken that lives He agreed that amalgamation was not possible at a single stroke, should not be sacrificed excepting to the necessities of war. Our but the formation of an air department with real responsibili.y and Royal Flying Corps as regards the efficiency of the machines and real powers was an urgent and indispensable preliminary. the men who were in it would bear favourable comparison with any While we had not complete supremacy, nor even equality in the flying corps in the world; there was none that did more than ours, air, we could recover it. The air was free, and the resources of the Some of the narratives of achievements of our men in combats in wholt world were at our disposal. Nothing stood in the way of the air had an individual interest which had been wanting in war- our obtaining early supremacy but ourselves. There was no reason fare for 700 years. They even recalled the legends of King or excus; for failure to obtain that early supremacy which was, Arthur, and tte contest of William of Scotland and Saladin, de- perhaps,. the most obvious and most practical step towards a scribed-by Sir Wal er Scott io. "The Talisman." And they had victorious issue from the increasing dangers of this war. the added interest which came from the reflection that they took 446 l/UGHT
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