FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1918
1918 - 0790.PDF
JULY 18, 1918. The official summary ot the work of the ^ R.A.F. during the past year, issued last Year's Work Saturday, may be bald and unromantic R.A.F. m itself, but it demonstrates a record of achievement which will, we think, surprise even those who have made the doings of the Force their special study. The most cursory glance at the summary will convince the sceptical that the Hun is definitely surpassed in fighting effi- ciency by the men of our own Air Service. The facts speak for themselves. During the year reviewed by the official statement, no less than 4,102 enemy machines were destroyed or driven down in the various theatres of war, against 1,213 British machines reported missing. Analysing the list, we find that during the year beginning on July 1st, 1917, and ending on June 30th last, 2,150 enemy aircraft have been destroyed by the British on the Western Front alone, while 1,083 have been driven down out of control. In the same period, R.A.F. units working ' with the Navy have shot down 623 enemy machines. Our own losses in the period were 1,094 machines reported missing, while of the Naval machines 92 are so reported. It will be seen, therefore, that in the West alone British airmen have accounted for 3,856 enemy aircraft, against a total number of missing on our own side of 1,186. On the Italian front, between April and June of this year, the British R.A.F. has destroyed 165 machines and driven down six, at a cost to itself of 13 machines missing. Our airmen with the Salonica force, between January and June, have accounted for 21 machines destroyed .. and 13 driven down out of control, while of their own machines four are reported as missing. During the period March-June in Egypt and Palestine 26 enemy machines were destroyed and 15 driven down, the British loss being 10 machines missing. As it stands, it is a wonderful record both in its bearing on the skill of our pilots and the efficiency of our machines. It is, too, a clinching tribute to the supremacy which we have unquestionably established over the enemy's air services, whether German, Austrian or Turkish. It argues that we have better and more skilful pilots—men with better nerve and with more ready grasp of the changing situations that arise in aerial combat—and that the latest fighting machines with which our R.A.F. is equipped are at least as good, and probably better, instruments of war as the best the enemy possesses. All of which is very much to the good. There is a great deal of solid satisfaction to be gained from a perusal of the report, but there is still a word of warning to be sounded that we shall-do well to heed. Good as the figures are, we must not allow ourselves to be betrayed into any slackening of effort. On the con- trary, we must still strain every resource to turn a strong superiority into an overwhelming supremacy. The new " light blue " uniform of the New^R AF R°yal Air F°rce is beginning to be seen Uniform. * about in London, and we must say it pleases us. True, it may not be the last word in the design of uniform, but it is truly dis- tinctive of the Service, and that, for the present, is really all that matters. We have always argued in favour of a uniform for the R.A.F. which should be absolutely unmistakable for that of either the Navy or the Army, for reasons which have seemed excellent to ourselves and which now appear to have appealed with equal force to the authorities of the Hotel Cecil. The main reason we have always had in mind is that if it be desired to create and maintain esprit de corps in any Service or unit it is absolutely essential that its members should never be in the position of being mistaken as belonging to something else. We can see that all through the fighting Ser- vices, where some prized distinction in dress is more almost than the existence of the unit concerned. The Welsh Fusiliers, for instance, would almost as soon be disbanded as give up the wearing of the " flash," while an Army Council which deprived the Gloucesters of the small plate on the back of the helmet would earn a hatred second only to that with which the men of that famous regiment regard the Hun. - It stands to reason, then, that if the new Royal Air Force is to create that pride of service which means everything to the morale of a fighting force it must be clearly and unmistakably a separate body distinguishable from the Army at a glance. That is what the new uniform does—no one who sees the light blue could mistake its wearer for a soldier or a sailor, which is as it should be. Lest there should be some who think we attach too much im- portance to this matter of distinctive uniform, we may disclose a fact which is common knowledge in the Air Force, and that is that the khaki uniform originally ordered for the Force has created a lot of dissatisfaction among the officers, particularly those who transferred from the R.N.A.S. These latter were very justly proud of their association with the Royal Navy, and the last thing in the world they desired was to become soldiers or to be mistaken for soldiers. It may possibly be a wrong view for them to have taken—we don't think so, but that is another matter—but the feeling is there. And, really, when the matter is probed to the bottom it is not a bad thing, for it denotes that pride in and love of service which spells that high state of morale and intense esprit de corps which are everything to a fighting service. It is stated, according to the DailyT °ttfl»°S8 Mail> that there is a possibility of a Atlantic? South American airman attempting to fly the Atlantic this year. That journal takes the opportunity of pointing out that its prize of £10,000 for such a flight has never been won, and reopens its offer. It will be remembered that this prize was suspended on the outbreak of war, but in order to stimulate the production of more powerful engines and more efficient aircraft it has thought well to revive it. Although our first preoccupation is with the war, we still think the Daily Mail does well to reopen the dormant prize. A vast amount of progress has been made in aircraft since the beginning of the war, but great as has been the advance, there is still a long way to go before the attainment of the ideal shall have been consummated. True, the preoccupations of which we have spoken may handicap our own constructors in taking part, which is a great pity, but then we cannot have it both ways, and if a South American inventor can evolve a new type or so improve the present that he can win the prize, well, we shall benefit as a nation from his success, and the only people who will suffer will be the indivi- duals who might have been concerned in winning the prize for Britain. 788
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
