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Aviation History
1940
1940 - 0131.PDF
and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE W6RLD •• FOUNDED WO9 Editor C. M. POULSEN Managing Editor G. GEOFFREY SMITH Chief Photographer JOHN YOXALL Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices : DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, S.E.I Telegrams: Truditur, Sedist, London. Telephone : Waterloo 3333 (SO lines). 8-10, CORPORATION ST., COVENTRY. Telegrams: Autocar, Coventry. Telephone: Coventry 5210. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: GUILDHALL BUILDINGS. NAVIGATION ST., BIRMINGHAM, 2. Telegrams: Autopress, Birmingham. Telephone: Midland 2971 (5 lines). 260, DEANSGATE, MANCHESTER. 3. Telegrams : Iliffe, Manchester. Telephone: Blackfriars 4412. 26B, RENHELD ST., GLASGOW, C.2. Telegrams : Iliffe, Glasgow. Telephone: Central 4857. Home and Canada : Other Countries: Year, £1 13 0. Year, £1 16 0. 6 months, 16s. 6d. 6 months, IBs. Od. 3 months. 8s. 6d. 3 months, 9s. Od. No. 1621. Vol. XXXVII. JANUARY 18 V 1940. Thursdays, Price 6d. The Outlooks British Air Forces in FranceT HE new organisation of the British Air Forces in France into a Command-in-Chief, under that name, on one hand increases our feeling of confi- dence, and on the other gives rise to misgivings. In eveiy form of warfare a good commander likes to keep in his own hands a strong reserve which can be thrown in at a critical time and place and may decide the for- tunes of the engagement. The new Command ensures that the R.A.F. in France will have strength, and will fulfill all the requirements of a reserve. It is obviously the intention of the Air Staff to avoid certain mistakes of the last war, when bomber squadrons were allotted to Army divisions and so were lost to the reserve. There was at least one occasion (the break-through by the tanks at Cambrai, if we remember right) when it might have made all the difference if a strong bomber force could have been speedily mustered at the critical point to defeat the German counter-attack; but that force had been dissipated, and could not be mobilised in a hurry. Flexibility is of the essence of the employment oc a bomber force, and that advantage ought not to be surrendered except in very special circumstances. From that point of view the new organisation is to be approved. . . Air Marshal A. S. Barratt, the new A.O.Cm-C. in France, has at his disposal a strong force, through com- bining into one the Air Component of the Expeditionary Force and the Advanced Air Striking Force. The former, the Air Component, of which Air Vice-Marshal Blount was the A.O.C., was previously under the general command of General Lord Gort, and so also under General Gamelin. The A.A.S.F., whose A.O C. was Air Vice-Marshal Playfair, was but a section of the Bomber Command, stationed in France for the obvious reason that from French aerodromes it could more quickly cross the border into Germany. Ihe new organisation cuts the Bomber Command in two; what Air Marshal Barratt gains, Air Chief Marshal Sir Edgar Ludlow-Hewitt loses. It certainly does not seem un- reasonable that the main striking force should have its headquarters in France rather than in Great Britain, and should be under a man on the spot, who must be in closer touch with the military situation, and with any sudden developments of it, than an officer in England can be. Again, one sees certain obvious advantages in the new organisation. Advancing Backwards On the other hand, this new arrangement goes back on the principle of unity of command, which, after much travail and many searchings of heart, was instituted in 1918 and proved such a tremendous success. This time we boasted that we were starting oft full of the . wisdom learnt in 1918, with General Gamelin in the shoes of Marshal Foch. Now we have set up in France a new Commander-in-Chief, who, according to the wording of the official communique, is not to be under the orders of Lord Gort or General Gamelin, but is to "consult " with them and with General Vuillemin as to the best way in which the British Air Forces can support the Armies and can co-operate with I'Armee de I'Air. We feel confident that by the exercise ot tact and commonsense on all hands the new arrangement will work well; but, frankly, the principle is not sound. Unity of command in the field is one of the best ways of achieving victory, and there is always a danger of something not giving the best results when forces have to rely on tact and give-and-take among their leaders, instead of on direct orders from a superior to an inferior officer. We should not approve if the War Office ap- pointed a Commander-in-Chief of the anti-aircraft guns and searchlights who was to "consult" with the A.O.C.-in-C. the Figher Command, and likewise we cannot think it a good thing that a step corresponding to that should be taken in France.
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