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Aviation History
1928
1928 - 0770.PDF
AUGUST 16, 1928 ROYAL AIR FORCE Changes in Higher Command THE Air Ministry announces that on January 1 next AirMarshal Sir John Maitland Salmond, K.C.B., C.M.G.. C.V.O., D.S.O., LL.D. (Camb.), A.D.C., will resign thecommand-in-chief of Air Defences of Great Britain and will be succeeded in that command by Air Vice-Marshal SirEdward Leonard Ellington, K.C.B., C.M.G., C.B.E. Sir John Salmond will replace Air Vice-Marshal Sir PhilipWoolcott Game, K.C.B., D.S.O., as Air Member of Council for Personnel. These are changes of first-class importance, and theyalmost certainly indicate that an even more important change in the higher commands is soon to take place. Latelyit has been persistently rumoured in well-informed circles that Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Hugh MontagueTrenchard, Bart., G.C.B., D.S.O , D.C.L , LL.D., will soon resign his appointment of Chief of the Air Staff. Such arumour has been current more than once in the last few years, but this time weight is lent to it by the change inthe command-in-chief A.D.G.B. Second only to the posi- tion of Chief of the Air Staff, that command is the mostimportant position in the Royal Air Force at home, and ranks even higher than the command of all the British forcesin Iraq—though the Iraq command is inferior to no other in responsibility. To an officer who has held both thosecommands in turn, a comfortable seat on the Air Council cannot be regarded as promotion. In fact, it is hardlyconceivable that Sir John Salmond's genius for command and organization should be allowed to rust in such an appoint-ment unless it were regarded as a mere temporary measure from which Sir John can easily step into the supreme appoint-ment of all in the service. Sir John Salmond, in fact, has long been regarded as the natural successor to Sir HughTrenchard whenever the latter should retire from his posi- tion as Chief of the Air Staff. A Marshal of the Royal AirForce is of corresponding rank to an Admiral of the Fleet and a Field Marshal, and therefore, presumably, neverretires from the service, though he may remain unemployed. Sir John Salmond is not only the second senior officerin the Royal Air Force, but is also the only officer who bears the rank of Air Marshal, which correspondends to Vice-Admiral and Lieutenant-General. At present no officer bears the rank of Air Chief Marshal. Sir John Salmond's Brilliant Career Sir John Salmond is a son of Major-General Sir WilliamSalmond, K.C.B., and was born in 1881, being three years younger than his brother Geoffrey. The brothers wereeducated at the famous army school, Wellington, but then separated, John proceeding to the Royal Military College,Sandhurst, and Geoffrey to the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. John was commissioned in the King's Own(Royal Lancaster Regiment) in 1901, while Geoffrey entered the Royal Artillery. However, the call of the air ultimatelybrought them together again in the same service. John served in the South African war, taking part in the operationsin the Transvaal, and received the Queen's medal with three clasps. In 1912 the future Air Marshal learnt to fly, receivingR.Ae.C. certificate No. 272. His brother took certificate No. 421 next year. On the outbreak of the Great War,Major J. M. Salmond took No. 3 Squadron, R.F.C., to France, and remained in command of it for about a year. Tt wouldbe quite impossible to recount all his activities, but two incidents during the battle of Neuve Chapelle are typical6f his conduct as a squadron leader. At 6 a.m. on the first day of the battle, No. 3 squadron was ordered to bombsome buildings in Fournes which were believed to house a German divisional H.Q. Bombing in those days was arough-and-ready proceeding. Three machines carried out the raid, led by Capt. E. L. Conran, and Major Salmond tookthe observer's seat in the leading aeroplane. Three times did Conran and Salmond dive to within 100 ft. of the build-ings before releasing their bombs, and the houses were duly set on fire. Two days later a Morane was being bombedup on the aerodrome of No. 3 squadron when a bomb ex- ploded, killing 12 men and seriously wounding four. Whenthe flames died down it was seen that all the bombs had not gone off. Major Salmond forbade anyone to go near theaeroplane that evening. Next morning it was found that all the live bombs had been removed and buried. MajorSalmond had done this himself at daybreak. At the battle of Loos in September, 1915, Salmond was a Lieut.-Colonel commanding the 2nd Wing, R.F.C., whichconsisted of Nos. 1, 5, 6 and 7 squadrons. Before the Somme struggle in 1916 John Salmond was promoted toBrigadier-General and commanded the 2nd Brigade, R.F.C., composed of the 2nd and 11th Wings. In 1917 he becameMajor-General and for a short time was Director-General of Military Aeronautics with a seat on the Air Board. Beforelong, however, he was appointed General Officer Commanding the R.F.C. in France. He remained in command untilsome time after the Armistice. He returned home wearing the insignia of the Legion of Honour, the Order of Leopoldof Belgium, the Crown of Italy, El Nahda of the Hedjaz, and the Belgian Croix de Guerre. On his return home he was for a time A.O.C. InlandArea ; but when Mr. Churchill decided to entrust the defence of Iraq to the Royal Air Force, and to place all Britishforces in the country under the command of the A.O.C., Sir John Salmond was chosen as the first officer to undertakethat very important command. It was an experiment which marked a new era in the history of war and defence,and to initiate it successfully called for the highest qualifies in the A.O.C. That Sir John was successful in his taskis proved by the growing peacefuiness and prosperity of Iraq, and the continuous reduction of the cost of itsdefence. Having proved his ability to organise new and novelcommands, Sir John was recalled to Great Britain in 1923 to initiate the new command of Air Defences of GreatBritain, and at the same time was promoted to Air Marshal. His new appointment carried the title of Commander-in-Chief,which duly marked its supreme importance. It was not only important in itself, but it was significant. It emphasisedthat the Royal Air Force was no longer a mere union of the R.F.C. and the R.N.A.S., designed only to providethe Navy and the Army with air arms. Air Defence became a separate business, requiring a special Ministry and aspecial staff to study the conditions of an air campaign in which it might happen that neither Navy nor Army wouldbe engaged. As such, it makes it certain that the A>r Ministry and the R.A.F. must survive as a separate andabsolutely essential entity even if in due course the Admiralty and the War Office are permitted to possesstheir own air arms which they, not unreasonably, desire to do. The one weak spot about the ne.w command wasthat the R.A.F. did not, and does not, possess its own ground organisation of searchlights and anti-aircraft guns, whichare certainly an essential element of Air Defence. In Iraq things are more logical, for there the R.A.F maintainsits own armoured car sections and does not borrow them from the Army. However, thanks to the exercise of tact,the Home arrangement has worked satisfactorily. The essence of air defence is attack. It is better to destroy thebroods of hostile aircraft in their lairs and their nests rather than to wait until they are crossing our coasts. For thispurpose the A.D.G.B. possesses the Wessex Bombing Area (sometime, no doubt, to be supplemented by the Mercian,Northumbrian and East Anglian Bombing Areas), and No. 1 Air Defence Group, the latter consisting of the bombingsquadrons of the Special Reserve and Auxiliary Air Forces. It is, nevertheless, conceded that actual raiders must bedealt with, and for that purpose there exists the Fighting Area, the anti-aircraft units of the Territorial Army, andthe corps of special constables who act as coast watchers and report the progress of raiding formations. Sir Johnhas laid good foundations during the all-too-brief time in which he has been Commander-in-Chief. Sir John married in 1913 Miss Helen Amy Lumsden, whodied in 1916 during the thick of the struggle in France, leaving one daughter. In 1923 Sir John married theHon. Monica Margaret Grenfell, daughter of the 1st Baron Desborough. The New C.-in-G. Air Vice-Marshal Sir Edward Ellington is a man not well known " in the street," but he has steadily increased his reputation in the service, and now he vacates the most important post overseas to take up the second most important post at home. Like Sir Geoffrey Salmond, he was originally a gunner. He took out No. 305 R.Ae.C. certificate in October, 1912, and it was in that year that one first heard of him as secretary to the War Office committee which was formed to deal with flying matters—a sort of precursor of the Air 714
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