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Aviation History
1939
1939 - 1474.PDF
MAY 18, 1939 ©m 495 and to Palestine and Trans-Jordan. In Aden it has proved as great a success as in Iraq, although the country is moun tainous. One squadron of bomber aircraft and a section of armoured cars have been enough to reduce to speedy submission any tribe which showed a disposition to violate the Pax Britannica. Such outbreaks are still frequent, and one shudders to think of what the cost would be in money and bloodshed if each one of them had to be dealt with by an Army expedition. While dealing with these desert tribes the R.A.F. has elaborated a technique which ensures success at a minimum of cost and with a minimum of bloodshed. In fact, it cannot be stated with too much emphasis that the object of air control is to avoid bloodshed when enforcing the law. When a tribe is contumacious and the efforts of the political officers have failed to make it see reason, air action is called for. The warnings to evacuate their village are now always obeyed by the tribesmen, who take refuge in caves in neigh bouring hills. The aeroplanes confine their punitive action to blowing up the houses of the chief malefactors, but do no other damage. Then one aeroplane, relieved at suitable intervals, takes up sentry-go over the village, preventing any villager from visiting the locality during the day. Bombs with delay-action fuses forbid the village to its in habitants during the night—due warning of their nature having been given. This action can be kept up indefinitely, • and its result is certain. Sooner or later the tribe submits and pays the fines ordered by the Government, and nobody is hurt at all unless he has wilfully disregarded the warnings. Helping the Navy and Army In Palestine it was found that the R.A.F. was not the best Service to take control. When the present troubles started they took the form of riots in the cities, and with them the aeroplanes could not deal as indiscriminate bomb ing of packed streets was out of the question. So the command there was restored to the Army, while air squadrons give the troops very great help in dealing with bands of insurgents in the hill country. In India it seems that no decision has yet been arrived at as to the exact powers and limitations of the R.A.F. Fighting against tribesmen has been more or less incessant on the North-West Frontier for a long time past. In the main the R.A.F. squadrons act in support of the Army. There is no doubt whatever of their value for recon naissance, and the observer in the sky can tell the General what is on the other side of the hill or on top of the hill with a speed previously unknown. The aeroplanes are also used there in support of the infantry when the latter assault a position, and their bombs and machine guns give the greatest help to the troops. At times the bombers are used to obliterate a vil lage which has become a centre of unrest, but inde pendent air action is not accepted on the Frontier as sufficient by itself, though it is impossible to say what developments the future may have in store. In Singapore we find the R.A.F. playing a very differ ent part. That city has be come a great base, strong in itself, but also a centre from which British power can " Fighting against tribesmen has been more or less in cessant on the North-West Frontier for a long time past." Wapitis—now very near the end of long and faithful service—on a raid into Warizistan. When the Air Ministry first made Air Defence of Great Britain into a separate Command, Air Marshal (now Marshal of the Royal Air Force) Sir John Salmond was entrusted with its form ation and organisation. He was the first R.A.F. officer to bear the title of Air Officer Com manding - in - C h i e f. Previously he had been the first Air Officer to assume supreme com mand of the British forces in Iraq, and so he has been connected with two notable developments of air power. strike out in almost any direction. Re connaissance over the sea is one prime necessity at Singa pore. Mobility, and the ability to reinforce towards either Australia, Hong Kong, or India, is another need; while a third is the capacity to strike hard at any hostile force approaching across the sea. Flying boats provide the reconnaissance force there, and they have also a certain power to strike with bombs. For defence nearer in, torpedo-bomber squadrons are employed as they can make themselves a serious menace to an approaching fleet. The duties of the R.A.F. at Singapore are primarily to work in conjunction with the Navy (including the Australian Navy), Tne Fleet Air Arm is developing on lines hardly con ceived during the Great War. The development of the flying deck and the catapult have made possible many forms of activity which were beyond the horizon in 1918. Reconnaissance remains here, as in other aircraft spheres, a prime duty. Spotting for the guns should increase the effectiveness of the Fleet's fire. It is always the object of the British Navy to bring the enemy to battle, and often, as at Jutland, the object of the enemy is to get away while the going is good. A mass attack by bombers and torpedo- planes on the enemy's fleet may be expected to produce at least one lame duck in the enemy's fleet, and a lame duck has to be either defended or abandoned. That by itself might well convert a Jutland into a Trafalgar.
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