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Aviation History
1919
1919 - 0466.PDF
APRIL IO, 1919 its camouflaged sides, and a whale. This mammoth denizen of the seas had often to pay the penalty for its similarity to an enemy craft. There is also an instructive photo of our Fleet meeting the surrendered German Fleet, our smokeless funnels being a revelation, as compared with the volumes of smoke issuing from the German warships. A picture of the method of changing kite-balloon crews at sea has quite a fascination of its own, and the trio of photos showing Airship 23, with its scouting plane attached beneath, the method of attaching, and the plane parting from its " mother," reveal one of the methods employed during the war to attack and to protect our dirigibles when on scouting work bent. Altogether, the R.A.F. Exhibition of War in the Air photo graphically illustrated, is the most worthy of any exhibition that we have seen for a decade. Those who miss it will, when they hear others talking about it, probably regret it but once —and that will be for the rest of their hfe. At the official opening on April 2, Lieut.-Col. Moore- Brabazon, M.P., who presided, described the exhibition as the culminating point of photography in the Royal Air Force. The pictures, he said, could be divided roughly into two categories ; firstly those relating to the purely military side of the War, and secondly, those connected with, the work of propaganda and the record of experiments. Dealing with the development of photography on the military side, he said it was started under the auspices of Gen. Sykes in the early part of 1915, with two hand cameras of the ordinary commercial type, and the work grew until at the end of the War, in France alone, they were delivering to the troops no less than 1,500,000 photographs a month. In what they accomplished the members of the Air Force were not working for themselves, but for the other services—the Navy and the Army. It was impossible to estimate the number of lives that were saved through aerial photography. No attack could have been delivered, nor could it have been successful, if it had not been for the detailed photographs of the position that the troops were about to storm. They would all pay a tribute to the men who by their gallantry were able to place such valuable information in the hands of the General Staff. Every photograph taken by the R.A.F. was carefully stored, and there was not a position ever held by British troops up and down the front at any time a picture of which could not be got at very short notice. The Marquis of Londonderry, who performed the opening ceremony in place of Gen. Seely, the Under-Secretary of State for Air, who had been called to Paris, said that it was necessary in the exigencies of War to maintain secrecy ; but the beautiful photographs on exhibition showed the high state of efficiency to which photography had attained. They brought out in brilliant relief the dazzling achievements of the airmen. Their exploits were so countless that it would be im possible to give them all the credit which they deserved ; but he thought he was entitled to say that the great success that had been achieved, and an early peace, was as much due to the part that the airmen played in the War as to that of any other portion of the fighting forces. Among those present at the opening of the exhibition were Gen. Sir F. H. Sykes, Maj.-Gen. E. D. Swinton, Gen. Sir W. S. Brancker, Gen. Ellington, Gen. Lambe, and Maj. Laws, and Prince Albert was one of the earliest visitors. AT THE WAR IN THE AIR EXHIBITION : Aeroplane does good recruiting work.—Midi (Arabia), a friendly village, seen from the air. The natives had never seen an aeroplane before, and were intensely excited when"our machines arrived. The effect was excellent, and many of them, as the result of the visit, joined the British Army or some friendly force, In the centre is the market place. 466
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