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Aviation History
1940
1940 - 0805.PDF
MARCH 14, 1940 247- THE AIR ESTIMATES Token Votes Represent " By Far the Greatest Effort and Expenditure Ever Made by this Country" <:—•:•,-, —t?^-_•?,--•••[,? THE Air Estimates for 1940 were introduced last Thurs-day, March 7, by the Secretary of State for Air, SirKingsley Wood, who said that for reasons of security"the amount of our Service Estimates were not now dis- closed, this being a time of war, but he was able to say thatthe Air Estimates of this year were of unprecedented character, and involved by far the greatest effort and expenditure evermade by this country in any year in relation to our air defences. Although the Estimates were presented as token votes only,the paramount need for the strictest economy had been, and would continue to be, impressed on all concerned, both at theAir Ministry and throughout the Commands of the Royal Air Force. The Select Comnfittee on National Expenditure, and,in particular, the Air Services Sub-Committee, could count on the Ministry's full co-operation. The Estimates represented only in part the further actionthat we were taking and proposed to take in conjunction with the Empire overseas and with our Allies. Our expenditure andefforts could not be limited to this year, but they must be continued and intensified until we had achieved our fixedresolve—the establishment of mastery in the air. Our pilots and our aircralt had already given a great accountof themselves on numerous occasions in combat with the enemy. The aircraft of the Bomber Command and of theBritish Air Forces in France had carried out by night and day over 1,000 sorties well into German territory, while our fightershad taken off more than 2,000 times for patrol, pursuit, and combat. The role of the Fighter Command had not been confined tothe defence of Great Britain against attack from the air—it had extended to the coastal waters and had included theprotection of convoys, fishing fleets, and neutral shipping near our coasts. Our fighters hail amply proved their worth. With-out a single loss on our side they had brought down some 40 German aircraft round our coasts, and we knew that manymore of the enemy had been forced down in neutral territory, or in the sea, on their return flights Units of the Coastal Command had now flown more than5,000,000 miles on reconnaisance or convoy duty. Since the outbreak of war they had sighted submarines on more than100 occasions and had delivered more than Go attacks. More than 700 convoys had been successfully escorted by aircraftof the command. It had been over the North Sea and in hourly co-operationwith the Royal Navy that the Royal Air Force had up to the present been mainly engaged. Co-ordination .. •:•• • - During the last two years, machinery had been built up forthe closest co-ordination of Naval and Air operations. The Naval Commanders-in-Chief of the various Naval Areas andthe Air Officers Commanding the Groups of the Coastal Com- mand shared the same headquarters, and their responsibilitiesextended over the same areas. The closest liaison also existed between the Admiralty and the Coastal Command and with theCommanders-in-Chief of the Bomber and Fighter Commands. It was only a matter of seconds to put the First Sea Lord orthe Naval Stafi into direct touch with Commanders-in-Chief. The closest connection between the two Services was alsoensured by the special appointment of an Air Marshal and of an Admiral, whose task it was constantly to review togetherthe operational situation in the North Sea and round our coasts, and to advise their respective Chiefs of Staff. Co-operation with France was also of the most intimatecharacter. In staff matters there was the closest contact. They had a comprehensive scheme for pooling information. When he introduced the Air Estimates for 1939 he told theHouse that as a result of their recruiting efforts the total strength of the Royal Air Force was approaching 100,000.To-day the strength of one Royal Air Force Command alone had nearly reached that figure. The quality of recruits had been and continued to be of thehighest, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Training Com- mand had told him that he had never known the quality ofyoung men to be higher. Great as was the training organisa- tion that had been built up in peacetime, it had not beenpossible to absorb at once the many thousands of applicants for Air Force service, and they had devised a scheme of " de-ferred service" under which the men accepted retained their 'civil occupations and so formed a pool on which they coulddraw. At the outbreak of war they had in the Royal Air ForceVolunteer Reserve a large reserve of trained and partly trained pilots carrying out training at a number of centres all overthe country, and it had always been accepted that many of them would require further training after the outbreak of war.Some were, of course, able to proceed at once to advanced tiaining and were now serving in the line; others had beengiven courses as instructors. Of the remainder, over 60 per cent, had passed on to flyingtraining. All would come in through the ranks. Every man in the Service, whatever his rank or trade, would, if he hadthe necessary personality and ability, have the chance of being recommended for a commission. They were so organising their technical training that theman who was unskilled on entry would have the opportunity of learning a skilled trade, and the semi-skilled man wouldhave the chance of becoming skilled. At this moment more than twenty schools were in operation, and others were beingrapidly provided. In that way he hoped they would be able to reduce to a minimum their demands on industry. Training They were also engaged in building up a great flying train- ing organisation- overseas, and when in full operation the schools in Canada, Australia, aud New Zealand under the Empire training scheme would produce no fewer than 20,000 pilots and 30,000 air crews every year. In addition, the Government of the Union of South Alrica had most helpfully offered to train pilots, and there would also be schools in Rhodesia and in Kenya, and with the ready agreement of the French authorities they were establishing a number of flying training schools on French territory. Within a few weeks of the outbreak of war they had passed the peak figure ol labour employed on aircraft production which was obtained in 1918, but there was an enormous pro- gramme required and an even greater effort ahead. The country owed much to the hundreds of thousands of men and women in factories who were making a great contribution to their air defences. In the case of materials, too, they had had to build up their supplies on a rapidly increasing scale. Before the war the Air Ministry had taken steps to extend the supply of the virgin aluminium and the special steels required for the air programme which they needed. Their own special problem was in the field ol light alloys. It had been a case of creating and huilding up an industry for which there was only an extremely small commercial demand. Not so very long ago the total output of these light fabricated materials was a matter of a few thousand tons a year, but that had already been multiplied many times over. New factories had been built and existing factories extended, and every month new plant was coming into operation. Future production had been planned on a scale which should enable them to attain their ' objective with something in hand. The plans they had made for production in the Dominions were beginning to bear fruit, and the first aircraft manufac- tured in Canada had already flown. Large additional orders had also recently been placed both in Canada and in the United States. The progress made in production to meet the needs of the Royal Air Force gave them cause for confidence. Civil Aviation "";.... First things must come first, and he was afraid, much asthey would wish it otherwise, thai the progress of civil aviation must inevitably be retarded. In spite of the exigencies of war,the Empire services of Imperial Airways had been carried on without interruption. In conjunction with the Australianand New Zealand Governments, they had decided to link up New Zealand with the Empire air routes, and to start in Aprila weekly service across the Tasman Sea. The North Atlantic programme last year was completed without a hitch, but theresumption of this service must depend 011 the inexorable needs of the military situation. In Europe we had our regular ser-vices to France and Scandinavia, and it was hoped that the difficulties which had so far prevented a regular service toLisbon would shortly be overcome. To safeguard the position of civil p.viation after the war,
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