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Aviation History
1938
1938 - 1468.PDF
5o8 FLIGHT. MAY 26, 1938. Equipment of the new Balloon Barrage Group at Cardington receiving an airing. . rendered lethal. The mooring cables in war time would be military objective. The bomber is, in fact, a long-range gun. Its contribution to a national victory would be the destruction of anything and everything which the artillery would shell if its guns could reach it, but which is out of the range of even the most modern gun. One has often seen poetically-minded writers speak of air squadrons as "cavalry of the clouds." A better description of the prime function of the Royal Air Force would be " artillery of the air." The- Bomber Command, whose headquarters are at Fiitjhl yhvfoyi tiph. Pilots o! No. 3 (F.) Squadron, Kenley, discuss formationflying in the presence of friends. The Squadron is armed with Hurricanes. Uxbridge, comprises six groups, five of which are regular while one is composed of squadrons of the Auxiliary Air Force. Perhaps in time the term No. 6 (Auxiliary) Group, will be changed, because there are now a number of Auxiliary squadrons whose function is either fighting or army co-operation, and which therefore are not included in this particular group. The five regular Groups will, no doubt, ultimately be arranged in some coherent order, some being groups of heavy bomber squadrons, some of medium bomber squad- rons and some of light bomber squadrons—if, indeed, the light bomber is destined to persist as a class, which seems doubtful. Also, it may be presumed that in due course the groups will each cover some particular tract of country, so that the stations in each will not be too far apart, and the squadrons in each group will be able to work together easily. At present we find No. 4 (Bomber) Group with headquarters at Linton-upon-Ouse, York, administering stations so far apart as Finningley, near Doncaster, and Boscombe Down, on the edge of Salisbury Plain. We must remember that the expansion of the R.A.F. is not yet complete. Many new stations are being built, and in the meantime there must be some makeshift temporary arrangements. One very sensible tendency can be dis- cerned, namely, the grouping of the heavy bomber squad- rons in the northern part of the kingdom. The heavy bombers must needs have the longest range, and therefore can afford to live farther away from the south coast. There is also a possibility, if the worst comes to the worst, of their having to strike out across the North Sea, in which case they would be well placed, and would waste a mini- mum of petrol in flying over friendly country. More than any other class of squadron, the heavies need to be expert at finding their way out and home through bad weather, and in the North they have plenty of practice in that art*-. It would hardly be profitable to give a list of the stations in each bomber group, as the present arrangement will doubtless be altered as new stations become habitable.
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