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Aviation History
1937
1937 - 1249.PDF
AIRCRAFT ENGINEER AND AIRSHIPS FIRST AERONAUTICAJTWEEKLY IN THE^VORLD •• FOUNDED WOO » Editor G M. POULSEN Managing Editor G. GEOFFREY SMITH Chief Photographa JOHN YOXALL Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices: DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, S.E.I Telegrams : Truditm, Sedist, London. Telephone : Waterloo 3333 (50 lines). HERTFORD ST., COVENTRY. Telegrams : Autocar, Coventry. Telephone: Coventry 5210. GUILDHALL BUILDINGS, NAVIGATION ST., BIRMINGHAM, 2. Telegrams: Autopress, Birmingham. Telephone: Midland 2971. 260, DEANSGATE, MANCHESTER, 3. Telegrams: Hide, Manchester. Telephone: Blackfriars 4412. 2SB, EENPIELD ST., GLASGOW, 0.2. Telegrams: Iliffe, Glasgow. Telephone: Central 4857. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Home and Canada: Other Countries: Year. «1 Year, £1 13 0. 1G 0. 6 months, 16s. Cd. 6 months, 18s. ltd. S months, 8a 6d. 3 months, <Js. Od. No. 1481. Vol. XXXI. MAY 13, 1937. Thursdays, Price 66. Looking Ahead *tIR expansion has for some time past filled the thoughts of every person who fears that the air raids experienced during the Great War may be multiplied in the next—if next there should unfortunately be. The progress of the expansion of the so-called Metropolitan Air Force has inspired wordy debates in the House of Commons, and so absorbing is the interest taken in this subject that no one has yet indulged in any speculations as to what ought to happen after the present programme has been completed. It is right that all energies should be devoted to the matter in hand, but that does not mean that it would not be wise to look ahead and consider what our next step should be. The present programme provides for a very large increase in our Home defences, a con siderable increase in the Fleet Air Arm and a modest addition to the number of squadrons overseas. The Fleet Air Arm must always be what the Admiralty desires it to be, and perhaps the Lords of the Admiralty will soon take over full responsibility for that arm. The other two sections of the expansion programme are of local concern, tied mainly to the countries in which the squadrons are stationed. We would raise the ques tion : Is that enough for our needs? The Air Ministry and its spokesmen frequently harp on the mobility of the Air Force and on the power which that mobility confers. They can give instances such as the rushing of transport aeroplanes from Iraq to India at the time of the Kabul evacuations. Certainly the ideal is that the Air Force ought to be mobile, but the fact that aeroplanes can fly fast does not of itself confer mobility on the Force. The Fighter Command, for instance, is tied firmly to Great Britain so long as there is any remote chance that raiders may attack Britain. We may well ask if the Bomber Command is any more mobile. If there is war, or even a chance of war, in Western Europe it would be rash to assert that we could afford to send even one group of the Bomber Command far away from our shores. Most probably every bomber squadron would be needed, or would have to be held ready, to bomb military targets in the enemy's country ; and also the Bomber Command would have to work closely with the Coastal Command in guarding the narrow seas. The essence of bombing efficiency is continuity of effort on selected important targets. Occasional sporadic bombing of many targets is a waste of effort. If an enemy port or railway station is to be kept out of action, no chance or time must be given to the enemy to repair the damage done in the first raid. There would therefore seem to be quite as much work before the Bomber Command as the exist ing four groups in that Command could conveniently tackle. In that case the Bomber Command is no more mobile than is the Fighter Command. Our Next Need It would seem that our next need is a special strategic Air Command which would be available for duty any where in the Empire, or outside it, where there was need at a particular moment. If, for example, the Army sent an expeditionary force to some distant theatre of war it would need help from the R.A.F. Of course, it would take with it the five Army co-operation squadrons, whose main work is reconnaissance and spotting for the artil lery. They could not undertake continuous bombing of the enemy's lines of communication, and in any case their machines are only in the same class as light bombers. The Army would need light, medium, and heavy bombers, and most probably it would need fighters, too. When Army manoeuvres are held in this country so many squadrons of fighters and bombers are lent to the Army by the Metropolitan Air Force, but, as has been explained above, in time of war none of those could be spared for specific Army work. The despatch of a land expeditionary force would not be the only case in which a truly mobile branch of the Air Force might be needed. There might be a sudden call for air action in some distant part of the world simultaneously with a threat to the shores of Great Britain. Perhaps it might be possible to mobilise some of the overseas squadrons to. deal with such an emer gency, and perhaps it might not. In any case, their numbers at present are small, and they w?ould need
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