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Aviation History
1937
1937 - 0302.PDF
FLIGHT. FEBRUARY 4, 1937. AIR DEFENCE British Progress Criticised in the Commons : Mr. O. E. Simmonds, Mr. Winston Churchill and Sir T. Inskip Give Different Figures : Vulnerability of Factories and Power Stations THE opportunity afforded by a private member's motion to hear of the progress made with the R.A.F. expansion was taken in the House of Commons on Wednesday of last week, when Mr. O. E. Simmonds. Member for the Duddeston Division of Birmingham, moved: — "That this House, while endorsing the Government's programme for air defence, urges that the power.of this country to resist air attack continues to be inadequate, and emphasises the .need for increased organisation both to accelerate the production of flying and ground equipment and to protect the lives of the people." Members who took part in the debate included Capt. H. H. Balfour, Member for the Isle of Thanet, Wing Cdr. Wright, Member • for the Erdington Division of Birmingham, Mr. F. Montague, Member for Islington and Under-Secretary of State for Air in the Labour Government, Sir Thomas Inskip, Minister for the Co ordination of Defence, Mr. Winston Churchill, and Rear Admiral Sir Murray Sueter. In examining that part of the motion which urged that the power o.f this country to resist air attack continued to be in adequate, Mr. Simmonds said it was necessary to go back to May 22, 1935, when was announced in the House the Govern ment's determination to increase the strength of the Royal Air Force. In the Supplementary Air Estimate of July 10, 1935, the following sentence occurred : "to undertake a further scheme for the expansion of the R.A.F." The scheme provided for the formation of 71 new squadrons for home defence by March 31, 1937. This would bring the "number of squadrons in this country, excluding the Fleet Air Arm, up to a total of 123 with a first-line strength of approximately 1,500 aircraft. Figuring it out Mr. Simmonds then proceeded to explain how he had arrived at certain figures from studying the monthly Air Force List. This showed that in the last four months of 1935, the first months in which the expansion programme to the 71 squadrons began to appear in the List, ten new squadrons were added. During 1936, 22 more were added, and although he might not be quite up to date, because one could not know the squadrons of the last few weeks until the new List appeared, there were definitely two and possibly one or two more squadrons that had been formed in 1937. It was, therefore, clear that since May, 1935, they had 34 additional squadrons out of the 71 due for March 31, 1937. He had prepared a complete tabulation of all the squadrons formed since May, 1935, and stated that this showed at a rough average that after six months of the first date of entry of the squadrons in the Air Force List the flying personnel was approximately 50 per cent, of full strength. That would mean that the 22 squadrons added during the last twelve months might be regarded as effectively equal to n full-strength squadrons. To obtain a fair figure, therefore, they had to reduce those 34 squadrons to the equivalent of 23 squadrons at full strength. In view of the fact that the strength of some of the squad rons had been increased from 12 to 14 machines, in fighter squadrons, and if it was assumed that, on an average, the strength of the squadrons since May 1935, had been 15 per cent., then they were adopting a very optimistic figure. Thus, if the 23 squadrons which they had arrived at were increased by 15 per cent, to 26 squadrons, he thought they were not far wide of the mark. Of the 71 new squadrons due in nine weeks from that day, they had 26 and still lacked 45 It had taken 20 months to get these 26 squadrons, so that at the same rate the remaining 45 squadrons would take approximately three years. If they doubled the rate of output it would take nearly one arid a half years, and if they trebled that rate it would take xme year. He came to the unpalatable conclusion that, so far as the Air Force List showed a true picture, the expan sion programme was somewhere between one and two years in arrears. Mr Simmonds then turned to the subject of Germany's air strength. A friend of his had just returned from Berlin and had told him that to-day there were roughly 150 service Ger man aerodromes and that at each aerodrome there must be about 100 'planes. That would mean that in total, including training machines, the German Air Force would have some thing like 15.000 machines. That sounded an astronomical figure, but from what he himself saw on a visit to Germany fifteen months ago he did not think it an improbable figure. If they took the extraordinarily low figure of 20 per cent, of that total as being first-class modern aeroplanes they arrived at a figure of no fewer than 3,000 first-line modern German air craft. Mr,-. Simmonds then referred to the efficient modern twin-engined bombers of the Junkers Ju.86 type capable, he understood, of a top speed of 217 m.'p.h. This machine, he said, was now being built in vast quantities by the makers and sub-contractors. Trying to find the reason for the deficiency in the expansion scheme, Mr. Simmonds asked whether it was due to difficulty of getting pilots. On November 10 the Minister for Co-ordina tion of Defence had said that over 2,400 pilots had been accepted for training since May, 1935, the pick of over 12,000 definite applications. No shortage had yet been experienced. Mr. Simmonds pointed out that the Air Force List showed that 382 of those new pilots had actually passed into squadrons, so, unless the realisation of the programme was from the very start an impossibility, it could not be the pilots who were responsible. Was it the machines? Here it seemed from Ministerial declarations that they were nearer the mark. The aircraft industry was at full throttle, but the shadow industry was already casting its shadow across the present aircraft pro duction programme. Mr. Simmonds then read extracts from a letter which he had received from the managing director of an important contractor to the present defence programme. According to this letter the firm in question had been badly hit in the last few months, due to a firm which figures in the expansion scheme having taken some eleven men from the contractor's staff of jig and tool craftsmen and paying them upwards of £2 -per week more than they were paying them. In consequence the work on which they were engaged had fallen considerably behind. On making representations to the Air Ministry, the firm had been informed that the Ministry was unable to do anything in the matter. Mr. Simmonds asked the Minister for the Co-ordination of Defence whether he would see that there should be no more dislocating of the production of his present contractors in order that the shadow scheme might get under way in a few years' time. Repairing the Damage Mr. Simmonds thought the most urgent change in the organ isation related to that which he called primary supplies. In the aircraft industry the Government had properly insisted that supplies should only be drawn on in this country. He thought that for a short period, until the manufacture of raw materials, jigs, tools, and machinery could be increased, the normal suppliers of those products should be* permitted by the Government to import from the best sources abroad. Other points raised by Mr. Simmonds included the problem of repairing crashed aircraft, which he suggested should be handled by some of the unapproved firms which were lacking work, instead of by the manufacturers; the question of air attack on the London Docks; and on the safer siting of fuel supply stores and aircraft factories. In the last connection he said that in the Austin shadow factory, outside Birmingham, they had 17^ acres under one roof. A factory 25 miles outside Berlin, employing 7,000 hands on aircraft, had each building at least 250 metres away from the adjacent one. Capt. Harold Balfour, who seconded the motion, pointed out that in the last war aircraft flew at about 80 m.p.h., whereas now they would fly three times as fast, so that there would be only 15 minutes' warning for London from the time they crossed the coast. It was the responsibility of the Government to make the nation air conscious, and he suggested that every boy, on leaving school, should have a State-aided opportunity of going into the air at least once. Capt. Balfour said that we must depend for our technical
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