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Aviation History
1937
1937 - 2042.PDF
92 FLIGHT. JULY 22, 1937. No concern with the upper air: one of the powerful search lights of Redland's coastal defence forts. Its beam is confined to sweeping the sea. (Flight photograph.) patted by all three Services and by the special correspond ents of all the great papers of the country for having faced a period of excessive strain and come out of it with flying colours ; Trinity House is perhaps musing on how all its lights in the zone of war except five could be dispensed with, and were dispensed with, for three hectic hours in the middle of the night; and the Air Precautions Depart ment of the Home Office is pondering a considerable num ber of problems which came to light (well, hardly to light; rather to pitchy darkness) during the great black-out on the night of Thursday-Friday. It may well be that in some future war, if ever it should come. Great Britain will be better defended as a result of the lessons learnt during these exercises. What those lessons are the onlooker cannot know in any detail, but certainly this was the first occasion of any magnitude in which all three fighting Services had to work in the closest co-operation on a defence scheme. Redland's plan of de fence had to be harmonious, as though controlled by one master mind, though actually it was managed by a trium- THE COAST DEFENC T HE great war in the Channel has been fought out to its inevitable end, and Redland and Blueland are now busily licking their wounds, while the staffs and umpires of the Home Fleet, the Naval Com mand of Portsmouth, the Southern Command of the Army, and the Coastal Command of the Royal Air Force are estimating casualties and digesting the lessons. At the same time the Territorial Army heavy gunners are full of satisfaction at having had real live naval cruisers and even battleships to fire at; the Post Office is patting itself on the back and having that same back virate consisting of Admiral the Earl of Cork and Orrery, Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth; General Sir John T. Burnett-Stuart, G.C.B., K.B.E., C.M.G., D.S.O., G.O.C.- in-C, Southern Command ; and Air Marshal P. B. Joubert de la Ferte, A.O.Q.-in-C, Coastal Command. Three bril liant brains : three strong personalities! One would very much have liked to hear all that went on inside their operations room. Anyway, the outward appearance was one of sweet accord. Whenever air reconnaissance was possible, and then, of course, it was the best form of recon naissance, out went the flying boats to scour the seas. As I Navy Day ! A scene of suspended animation at a Redland aerodrome during Thursday's storm, which grounded the major portion of the defending air force. On the left are the Heyfords of No. 99 Bomber Squadron with No. 269 General Reconnaissance Squadron's Ansons on the right
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