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Aviation History
1918
1918 - 1486.PDF
DECEMBER 26, 1918 accomplished during the war, and particularly inthe course of the past jTear. • • • The year 1917 saw the activity of theRaids: Germans, in so far as concerns air raids anTy °.n tllis country, at its maximum inten- Allied sitY- Bearing in mind the occurrences of that year, we certainly thought that -1918 would not be one whit behind the record of its predecessor, but, contrary to all expectation, we have really had a comparatively peaceful time. Sporadic raids were carried out during the first few months of the year, the worst, from the point of view of loss of life, being that of January 28, when several machines reached London, and bombs were dropped in central districts, killing 47 and injuring 169 people. Raids were fairly frequent up to the end of March, when the German offensive opened, and gave their air service more useful work to dx) than baby-killing in English and French towns. The last raid on London took place at Whitsuntide, but the invading machines suffered such heavy losses that the enemy command evidently came to the conclusion that the game was not worth the candle. By this time, too, we had begun to give full effect to the policy of reprisals, and the Independent Air Force was giving the towns of the Rhineland far more than the enemy was in a position to return, with the consequence that a suggestion came from the German side that the bombing of towns outside the war zone should cease. Needless to say, the proposal met with scant atten- tion from the Allies. The real reason for the squeal must be sought in the fact that Allied air supremacy was by this time so well established that Germany had begun to recognise the inevitable. Machines, and, above all, the best pilots, that would have been employed over the lines in France, had to be retained at home for the defence of German towns, and there were thus fewer pilots available for long-distance bombing expeditions. Thus, the claim made early by the enemy that the raiding of open towns achieved a direct military result by causing the detachment of men, machines and guns from the front for home defence recoiled with force on his own head. Although London has not done so badly in the matter of hostile raids, thanks to the factors we have noted, and to the high pitch of excellence to which the defences were latterly brought, there have been frequent attempts made to raid the coast towns, but in very few cases have they met with anything like real success. In fact, not the least disappointment the Hun has sustained in a year of bitter disillusionment must have been the utter failure of his aerial fright- fulness, in combination with the full measure of his own medicine with which the Allied air services have dosed him in turn. It would be an utterly hopeless task to endeavour to traverse the aerial activities of our own R.A.F. and the Allied air services generally. Indeed, we have long ceased to try to keep count even of the number of raids carried out behind the German lines. They have been almost literally as the sands of the seas, and their effect on the result of the war has been incalculable. At the end of 1917 we were only able to say that our counter-raids were, so far as the policy had been developed, confined altogether to points of military importance. The formation of the Indepen- dent Air Force was collateral with a change in the basic policy. True, objectives of military value were still the principal care of the I.A.F., but the Rhine- land towns, which were of immense importance to the enemy either as concentration points for troops or as munitions centres, were regularly and persistently raided, and a great deal of damage, both moral and material done, with, as we have already said, an effect on the issue of the war which can never be calculated, but which was undoubtedly very great. • • • • Unfortunately, our victory has not been Roll won without a deplorable sacrifice of of Honour ^e- The casualty lists of the R.A.F. have been appallingly heavy, but not more so than we should expect them to be when the character of the work in which our pilots have been engaged is borne in mind. In fact, proportionately to the growth of the Service and in the intensity of the aerial war, it is very probable that they are lighter than in any previous year of the war. Again, it has to be recorded that in spite of the perilous nature of the duties demanded of the officers of the R.A.F., there has been no more difficulty in securing the requisite number of volunteers to fill the gaps caused by our losses, and at the same time to provide sufficient for the enormous expansion of the establishment. The main difficulty has been in the selection of the best from among the huge numbers who have offered themselves for service in the R.A.F., which has become the most popular of all the Services among the promising youth of the country. That it will remain so, provided there is no post-war tinkering with its status, we arc very fully assured. • • • .', Necessarily, the Royal Aero Club has •pF * again found its activities limited to its Aero'oub social functions, which, be it said, it has developed and carried out with conspicuous success during the year. That it intends to remain a force in the future of aviation is evidenced by the instant announcement made by the Club on the signing of the Armistice to the effect that the prize for the first Atlantic flight had been re-opened for competition. We have no doubt that this is but the first earnest of its return to active life as the promoter and governor of the sporting and develop- ment side of the movement, and in that role, needless to say, we wish the Club all success. • . *• •, • • • It may be said that the industry has The Year piaye(j a part in the war during the Industry vear that is second only to the magni- ficent record of our flying men at the front. What has been done in speeding-up production cannot be told yet, since it must be a matter of time to co-ordinate the figures, but when these are avail- able they will, we fully believe, read more like a fairy tale than sober fact. We do not even intend to make an estimate of the proportionate production achieved at the end of the war as compared with a year ago, but it is enormous, and the country owes a deep debt of gratitude to all concerned in the industry for the Titanic efforts they have put forth during the past twelve months—efforts which, it is not too much to say, have done as much as anything, save the valour of the fighting men, to make victory certain. There have been incidents, though, that would be better forgotten. Of vexatious strikes and labour troubles arising out of the most trivial causes, and which have tended to hold up production to an extent that might have been dangerous had they spread. Fortunately, the heart of labour has been sound at the core, and none of these troubles has had
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