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Aviation History
1925
1925 - 0633.PDF
OCTOBER 1, 1925 noon, on September 25. Up to that hour, General Godleywas instructed to hold the Mercians east of a line running from Salisbury to Upavon. The Wessex forces were well chosen for the task allotted tothem. There was only one division, the 3rd, backed by the 162nd Infantry brigade (Territorial Army), but to compensatefor this weakness in infantry and field artillery there was a complete cavalry division, almost a complete brigadeof horse artillery, a battalion of tanks, and a company of armoured cars. One of the infantry brigades, the 7th, wasmechanicalised, that is to say, that the whole of it moved in motor lorries. Mobility was, therefore, the strong point ofthe Wessex force, in contrast to the heavy striking power of the Mercians. The Rival Air Arms The Mercian forces were weak in cavalry and had no horseartillery or armoured cars, though the nominal strength of tanks on either side was equal. To compensate for this, the The Mercian superiority, therefore, was not so great inreality as it appeared on paper, and as it was usually stated to be by military correspondents of various papers who hadnot made a special study of air matters. The Mercians had three Bristol squadrons to one squadron and one flight onthe Wessex side, while the two forces were precisely equal in fighters and bombers. Now the Bristols were used almostentirely for reconnaissance and the kindred work of artillery observation. With very few exceptions, they kept regularlyat a height of 3,000 ft., and used their eyes, their cameras and their radio-telephony, rather than their bombs and theirmachine guns. When they spotted a ground target they almost invariably called up Grebes to attack it. On only oneoccasion did I actually see a Bristol attack ground troops with its guns, and there, if the cartridges had not been blank, the FLIGHT correspondent would certainly have been bagged.Perhaps the pilot of a Rolls Royce engine took exception to the proximity of a Trojan car ! The disparity in aircraft THE RETURN AND THE DISPERSE: Above, No. 25 has accomplished its mission, and, below, Letting,off Steam. After breaking formation the pilots of No. 25 display a little individuality. Mercian forces had a superiority of aircraft. For the sake of clearness, the air forces may be arranged in tabular form :— MEFCIA (Blue). WESSEX (Red). Army Co-operation Squadrons (Bristols). No 2 (Squadron-Leader R. E. No. 16 (Squadron-Leader J. Saul, D.F.C.). O. Archer, C.B.E.), No. 4 (Squadron-Leader J. C. Special Flight irom Slcssor, M.C.). School of Army Co- No. 13 (Squadron-Leader C. operation. C, Durston). Fighter Squadrons (Grebes). No 25 (Squadron-Leader A. No. 56 (Squadron-Leader F. H. Peck, D.S.O., M.C.) J. Vincent, D.F.C.). Bombing Squadrons (D.H.9A.). No 207 (Squadron-Leader V, No. 39 (Squadron-Leader H. Gaskell-Blackburn, . Champion de Cres- '- D.S.C., A.F.C.). .... - pigny. M.C., D.F.C.). may probably be explained by saying that the mobile forcesof Wessex required the most watching. In general, the intention was that each Bristol squadronshould work with one division, No. 16, of course with the 3rd Division, and the special flight with the Wessex cavalrydivision, No. 4 with the 2nd Division, No. 2 with the 4th Division, and No. 13 with the 1st Division, while the fightersand bombers were always in the hands of corps H.Q. This, however, as is usual, did not work out quite according toplan. For instance, the 1st Division was hardly engaged with the West Saxons until the last day, but it would havebeen wasteful to keep No. 13 squadron aground until the end of the battle. A couple of other points connected with this allocationof aircraft should be noticed. Only four divisions of the British Army were in the field, yet not only were all the Armyco-operation squadrons fully employed, while an extra flight was screwed out of ,the School of Army Co-operation, butthe total number of squadrons had actually to be doubled. 633
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