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Aviation History
1932
1932 - 1222.PDF
r, DECEMBER 1, 1932 quotes authority, such as the pronouncements of Russian official publications. He never indulges in lurid descriptions calculated to make the flesh of his readers creep. Yet the picture which emerges from his marshalled facts and figures is sufficiently alarming. Never has any State—not Zululand under the great Chaaka, nor Sparta in the golden age of Greece— been so completely militarised as is Soviet Russia under the Five-Year Plan. " The most active workers in the factories," writes Mr. White, " and on the State farms are always referred to as ' shock brigades ' or ' battalions.' ' " On the State iarms the workers live in barracks, and are marched to and from their work. Continual references are made to the industrial ' front.' Special activities are always referred to as ' campaigns.' " Such phrases and devices might in themselves be harmless enough, but the factory workers are actually armed and partially trained as soldiers. When any military display takes place in Russia to-day the regular troops are followed on parade by serried ranks of factory workers in rough working clothes, each man carrying a rifle. It was the factory workers who originally made possible the Bolshevik Revolution. In 1917 they were an undisciplined mob. To-day, says Mr. White, they are " an enormous disciplined auxiliary of the Red Army." A recent publication of the Soviet State Publishing House stated that " the militarisation of industry is of prime import ance to the Red Army." Mr. Baker estimates the total forces of the Soviet as 1,185,000 men, of whom 438,000 are Territorial units, conscripts, and youths undergoing training. In a long campaign he believes that Russia could put 17 million men into the field. Whether she could transport them and feed them, and what their fighting value would be, are questions which cannot now be answered. Still, he is con vinced that the soldiers, the equipment, the trans port, and other matters are better than they were in 1914. The transport is still one of the weakest points, and another is the poor education of the Red officers. In 1914 Russia made herself felt; and Mr. Baker considers that she is in a position to do better in many respects now. One of the most interesting features of Soviet Russia is the Red Air Force. It is, like the Air Forces of Great Britain and Italy, separate from the Red Army, but it is under the control of the Com missar for War. So too, and this is a very im portant point, is all civil flying. Friends of the Soviet may retort that in Great Britain military and civil flying are under the same Air Ministry. There the resemblance ceases. Mr. White remarks: " The Soviet leaders fully appreciate the value in time of war of civil planes fitted with bomb sights and racks, and they have been careful to see that civil aviation has developed in accordance with the basic principles of military strategy." The paper Red Star, the official organ of the Revolutionary Military Council, has written: " Military and civil aviation are very closely connected, and this connection must be strengthened." Which, we wonder, does the Disarmament Conference accept as the genuine senti ment of Red Russia—the proposals of Litvinoff or the statement of the Red Star " A recent League of Nations estimate puts the total of military aeroplanes in the Red Air Force at not less than 1,500, which Mr. White considers a fairly accurate or conservative figure. He says that the tactical unit consists of from six to 12 machines; three of these units make a squadron, and two to three squadrons a brigade. About 75 to 80 per cent, are reconnaissance machines, about 15 per cent, are fighters, and the remainder bombers. He con cludes that Russia is weak in bombers, but perhaps he means twin-engined bombers. We must remem ber that reconnaissance machines can be used for day bombing. In Belgium, for example, the "Fox" is the equipment of reconnaissance squadrons. In addition to the above there are about 50 seaplanes with the Baltic Fleet and 25 seaplanes with the Black Sea Fleet. The building of semi-rigid airships is also in hand, and General Nobile has gone to Russia to design them. He is certainly a very good designer, though he has not shown himself a successful air ship captain. Russia is making great efforts to be independent of foreign aircraft factories. Before the war Russia, with M. Sikorsky and others as designers, was making a promising start with an aircraft industry. In the year 1916 Russian factories, according to figures quoted by Mr. White, turned out over 1,700 aero planes and 666 aero engines. By 1922 this industry had reached vanishing point, and the Bolsheviks had to start from the beginning to build it up. They bought large numbers of foreign machines (we re member a reported offer to buy British Schneider racers) and the Junkers firm helped them immensely by setting up works at Fili, near Moscow. The Junkers company has now closed these down, but the Russian Government has taken them over. Pro gress was slow at first. Flying training schools were opened, but crashes were so frequent that whole classes of students refused to fly the machines and had to be discharged. Now things are going much better, though it appears that design is largely a matter of copying foreign models. We must suppose that, unless the Five-Year Plan breaks down alto gether, Russia will continue to make further progress in the air. Her web of long air lines is already sufficiently imposing. As we have stated more than once before, we are not particularly impressed with the potentialities of air liners converted to bombing purposes and flown by untrained crews. Good fighter squadrons would find them so much cold meat. What is alarming about the Russian preparations is the attention which is being paid to chemical warfare. The Red leaders are certainly prepared to make full use of gas on any enemies whom they may encounter in the cause of World Revolution. Again, their efforts to date may be largely nullified by inefficient working, but the will to gas is certainly active. Mr. White is positive that Russia does not want war yet. She wants to make more progress before she engages in an armed attack on Capitalism. This is obviously only common sense, and the Red leaders are not devoid of that quality. But they never for one moment relax their efforts to arouse in the whole population the spirit of militarism, and they con stantly bid them prepare for the day when they shall lead the proletariats of the world against Capitalism. For Geneva to talk to such people of disarmament and universal peace is much like holding out an olive branch to a man-eating tiger. Yet, if Russia will not genuinely disarm, how can any other Power even think of doing so? The massing of aerodromes and warlike factories near the borders of Afghanistan should certainly be a warning to India which Great Britain would be foolish to overlook. 1144
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