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Aviation History
1918
1918 - 0168.PDF
FEBRUARY 14, 1918. great victory in the West is absolutely necessary for Germany in the immediate future, and the longer the stroke is delayed the worse become the prospects of success. As a matter of fact, even the present prospects for a successful German offensive are the reverse of encouraging to the enemy. So far from his boasted reinforcements from the Russian front having enabled him to redress the numerical balance against him, they have not even equalised it. At the present moment, the combined Franco-British armies are still slightly superior in numbers and in guns, leaving out of account altogether the American, Belgian, and Portuguese forces in the line or in reserve in France. More than that, Germany has no more reserves at her disposal. Her industries have been combed out not once but a dozen times and are milked dry. All she can look forward to are her annual classes of youths, and even these are mortgaged up to the end of 1920 ! That is to say, whatever may have been the case in the earlier years of the war, when certain of the prophets assured us that Germany was at the end of her man-power resources, it is beyond doubt that she has drawn her very last man into the line and must stand or fall with what she has now. It hardly needs saying that this does not by any means indicate that we can afford the very smallest slackening of effort. On the contrary, Germany is faced with her final effort. If she suc- ceeds, then we must needs make the best of a German peace. If she fails—and she must fail if we put forth our best effort—then the end is equally in sight, but it will be the end we desire and have been fighting for these three-and-a-half years past. When at last the German Command decides that the time has come to launch the great offensive, it will necessarily be preceded by an intense battle for local supremacy in the air. Only when this has been obtained has a great attacking operation any real chance of success, for the reasons that are perfectly well known and appreciated by our readers. It follows, therefore, that it is literally true to say that the success or failure of the campaigns of 1918 is being decided in the aircraft factories of the Allied nations. We know the enemy has been concen- trating a tremendous effort on aircraft construction in preparation for the coming Spring. In addition, it seems clear that he is saving every machine he can spare from all but the most essential work at the front. The question, then, that only the next few weeks can answer is : Has our own rate of construction been high enough to give us not only equality but a sufficient margin over the German aircraft strength to hold and defeat the preliminary aerial offensive ? Obviously, we cannot answer the query—we can only hope. • • • Closely allied to this question of aerial Trade Union supremacy—inseparable from it, indeed MeanddS ~is that of outPut in our factories. Production. There has recently been a deplorablemisunderstanding between certain of the Government Departments concerned and a section of aeroplane workers, a misunderstanding which weare glad to say did not result in a stoppage of work. It is quite possible that these misunderstandingsare inevitable in the circumstances existing at present, and that the best we can expect is that they should be adjusted with the minimum of delay and by theadoption of a policy of give and take on both sides. In themselves they are sufficiently serious, and their effect on output of aircraft is pernicious, but at least they have the merit of being open and of thus affordir;^ a clear basis for discussion and adjustment before lasting harm is done. There is, however, a much greater peril at the door and it is all the greater because it is insidious. We refer to the trade union restrictions on the output of operatives engaged on piecework. Now, it is a fact, so we are assured by quite competent authorities, that the piece-workers on aircraft work are at the present moment working to no more, as a general rule, than sixty per cent, of their capacity, which means, of course, that where we should produce a hundred machines in a given time we actually only produce sixty. To put it in another way, to meet the coming German offensive in the air we shall be forty per cent.—nearly halt—short of the number of machines we might have had if our aircraft workers had really put their backs into the task of giving us that aerial supremacy which will make all the difference between victory and defeat. It is a sorry reflection indeed that our gallant fighting men at the front, to say nothing of our civilians—men, women and children—who are exposed to the dangers of enemy air raids, should be denied by trade union rules, which are indefensible even in times of peace but which are absolute treason in time of war, the necessary numbers of aircraft to enable them to carry the war to an early and victorious end. It is un- fortunate that there does not seem to exist a remedy for this state of affairs, other than an appeal to the- patriotism and good sense of those who are responsible for making these pernicious rules. Of the effect of such appeals we confess we are not at all sanguine. They have been made time and again during the war, but still the damnable system of restricting output continues with the results we have stated. There is but one thing remaining to be said—that the men who are fighting our battles overseas will know their friends when they return. Last week we commented on the case Hun of Captain Scholtz and LieutenantP from6the a Wookey> who have been s entenced to Air_ penal servitude for ten years by theHuns for the "crime" of dropping propaganda leaflets behind the German lines. As we noted at the time, we are more than pleased to know that our Government has taken prompt action by demanding the release from prison of these two officers, threatening reprisals if the demand is not complied with at once. It does not appear to have been alleged that the leaflets which were the subject of the charge contained anything but the truth— which, of course, is the last thing in the world the German authorities desire their people to know—and, knowing our own methods, we should be very astonished indeed to hear that they did in fact con- tain any statements which were not literally true. W e have no official knowledge of their exact text, but it may be accepted that they were made up from the speeches of President Wilson and the British Prime Minister. But whatever they were, or whatever they contained, the Hun took such a serious view of them that the officers concerned in their distribution were given a savage sentence of penal servitude for doing what they had no alternative but to do without disobedience of orders. The mentality of the Hun is past appreciation. We cannot get at the point 164
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