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Aviation History
1918
1918 - 0343.PDF
MARCH 28, THE WAR CABINET AND THE ROYAL AIR FORCE. Committee. Its appointment was a necessary administrativecorollary to the decision taken by the War Cabinet on the question of principle. The absorption of the two branchesof the Air Service in a single service would at any time have been a matter of complexity, and the task was one of whichthe delicacy was enhanced by the fact that it was to be brought about in the middle of a great war and at a timewhen those concerned in the amalgamation were carrying a burden of responsibility and administrative work, the dailyperformance of which could suffer no interruption or delay. It was essential, therefore, before any legislative action wasinitiated that the ground to be covered should be carefully plotted out, and this was the task which fell to the AirOrganisation Committee. The nature of its enquiries may be indicated under thefollowing statement of some of the questions which were dealt with : (i) The legislation needed for the establishmentof an Air Force and of an Air Council to administer it ; (2) the constitution of the Council, its membership and theappointment of duties between the members ; (3) the organisation of the Air Ministry and the duties of its officials ;(4) the question of supply in all branches, the rates of pay, conditions of service and pension allowances, the relationbetween the Air Ministry and Air Force and the War Office and Admiralty and Army and Navy ; (5) the preparation ofKing's Regulations and other matters relating to discipline &c. On the majority of these questions the Air Organisa-tion Committee was able to arrive at an agreement with the departments concerned. It is, however, only right (if a just perspective is to bemaintained) to emphasise the importance of the contribution to the unification of the two Services which had been madewhen their headquarters' staffs became housed under one roof. The opportunities for daily conference on almostevery subject of aeronautical administration which naturally ensued—-together with the link provided by a joint systemof supply and design—was probably an essential preliminary to the task of unification. IN" the report of the work of the War Cabinet for the year1917 which has just been published, there is the following chapter dealing with air matters:—•: ;•: The Air Service, The year 1917 saw the passing of the Air Force (Constitu-tion) Act, 1917, and that Act and the amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service in aunified Air Force which will eventually result from it repre- sents the consummation of tendencies, the workings ofwhich can be traced throughout the brief but crowded history of naval and military aeronautics in this country. [Then follows a brief recapitulation of the history of theFlying Services and the first Air Boards.] It is now necessary to discuss the factors which led to thetransformation of the second Air Board into the fully equipped and independent Ministry which is, at the dateof the Report, in course of organisation. At the time of the formation of the second.Air Board, _the requirements.of thetwo Services in the matter of aircraft were far from satisfied, and during the first six months of its existence the whole ofits energies were devoted to increasing supply in order to meet those requirements. By the middle of the summer of1917 the situation had improved so much that the Board was in a position not only to look forward to the day whenthe needs of the two services would have been met but also to anticipate the creation of a substantial surplus of aircraftbeyond those needs. It then became necessary to take measures for the utilisation in the most effective manner o;fthese additional craft. This gave rise to questions of policy which the Board, constituted as it was, was unable to solve.An Air War Staff became a necessity in order to consider problems of aerial offensive and defensive distinct from thoseconnected with the operations of the Army and the Navy. The need for such a body was pointed to by the obviouslyincreasing importance of these problems. The speed, range and carrying capacity of aircraft were reaching a stage ofdevelopment almost unsuspected at the beginning of the war. It was possible to envisage from the results of bombingoperations already practised on lines of communication and other places behind the enemy's lines the effect which theextension of these operations might have upon the deter- mination of a struggle which, as regards the conflicts of theopposing armies on the Western Front, threatened to reach, if not a deadlock, at all events a condition where victorymight only ensue by a long and costly process of attrition. From the point of view of defence, the new arm presentedproblems pregnant with at least equal importance. The proud and ancient inviolability of these islands was beingchallenged in a new and startling fashion, and the seriousness of the problem was added to by the fact that the geographicalposition of the capital of the Empire rendered it particularly inviting to attack from the air. The menace of the lighter-than-air craft seemed in a fair way to be overcome, but it was clear that the- possibilities of attack by bomb-carryingaeroplanes were not "yet either measured or mastered, and any arguments based on the assumption that the uses of air-craft were purely ancillary to military or naval operations were being refuted by the logic of fact and experience. TheAir Board, however, possessed neither the staff nor organisa- tion to enable it to cope with these problems. The Presidentwas without that body of technical advice which alone would enable him to form a correct judgment as to the relativeimportance of the different methods of employing aircraft. For technical advice of this kind he could look only to thenaval and military members of the Board who sat there mainly as representatives of the Board of Admiralty and ofthe Army Council. These considerations led to Lord Cowdray's addressing,on July 28th, 1917, to General Smuts (as the member of the War Cabinet charged with the general supervision of airmatters) a letter setting forth his view that the Air Board should be turned into a permanent Ministry, that it shouldhave a War Staff to consider the best use to be made of air- craft not needed directly by the operations of the Armyand the Navy, and that the surplus aircraft should be con- sidered a distinct unit from the air contingent attached tothe Expeditionary Force. f On August -24th the War Cabinet decided to accept inprinciple the establishment of an Air Ministry, and also decided that a further Committee should meet at once towork out a scheme for giving effect to this decision. This body consisted, under the chairmanship of General Smuts,of representatives of the Admiralty, War Office, Treasury and Air Board, and was known as the Air Organisation Ministry of Air Following upon the discussions of the Air OrganisationCommittee, the Air Force Bill was introduced into the House of Commons in November. It met with no opposition ofprinciple in either House, and received the Royal Assent on November 29th. The scheme of the Act contemplates thatthe whole of the personnel and equipment of the R.F.C. and R.N.A.S. should be in due course absorbed by the Air Forceunder the control of an Air Council presided over by a Secretary of State and exercising functions analogous tothose of the Army Council. It was fortunately not necessary to provide the new forcewith a complete and original code of administration co- extensive with the codes by which the Navy and Army aregoverned and which are made up of an accretion of centuries of experience. The actual administration of the Air Forcewould clearly offer many analogies to that of the Army, and it was found practicable to adopt with modifications theArmy (Discipline) Act to regulate the discipline of the Air Force. Similarly, the Crown is empowered by Section 13of the Air Force (Constitution) Act to apply with any neces- sary modifications to the Air Force any of the various enact-ments relating to the powers, rights ana duties, of the Army or of its officers and men. It was not to be expected that the new department couldspring forth fully armed from the decisions of the Legislature. The provisions of the Air Force (Constitution) Act repre-sented the fruits of a careful preliminary exploration by the Air Organisation Committee, but there remained importantsteps in the detailed organisation of the new Force which could not be undertaken until the Bill became law. One ofthe first steps in re-organisation was a readjustment of the positions of the Technical Department of the Air Board,which was responsible for the design of aircraft, and the Aeronautical Supply Department, under the Ministry ofMunitions, which was under the charge of Sir William Weir, who was also a member of the Air Board. The changes nowmade unified the functions of the two Departments. The next step was to set up the Air Council and to define theduties oi its members. This was done by Orders in Council issued on December 21st, 1917, and January 2nd, 1918.On the latter date Lord Rothermere (who had been appointed President of the Air Board on November 23rd, followingLord Cowdray's resignation) was appointed Secretary of State. The appointments of the other members of the AirCouncil were announced at the same time : Lieut.-Gen. Sir 339
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