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Aviation History
1940
1940 - 0996.PDF
312 APRIL 4, 1940 Finland the bomber has functioned under the orders of the army. With the ground war came air war, the one a concomitant of the other. Each of those wars was a war of movement requiring the advance of troops to occupy territory the conquest of which was the primary objective of the campaign. Thus it has been said that the Douhet theory of total air war is dead. Perhaps it is too soon to say so. None of the wars I have mentioned was suited to the application of the Douhet theory. A skilled physician does not proffer the wrong physic. Neither does a skilled strategist employ the wrong tactics. The Douhet theory of conquest by means of the destructive effect of air attacks in mass against areas is not required in a war of movement where the thrust of ground forces is achieving, and must achieve, success if the campaign is to end in victorious occupation of enemy territory. They say, too, that the need supplies the man. If that be true, perhaps it is because we have not yet had need of such a one that we have no Nelson of the air. Yet it may be that before this war is over we may need a Nelson of the skies. A Significant Action Surely it is significant that in this first year of war the first great air action of the Royal Air Force was launched against an enemy base whence bombers had flown to attack a British naval base. To-day the British Navy is a target from below the water and above it. Seldom is it a target for a surface ship when it can battle as of yore. When it meets its foe as he was met in the battle of the River Plate the British seaman is the same old fighting force he always was. But when attack is launched against the Navy through the skies, retaliation must strike also from the skies. And that is the first line of the first paragraph of the first page of the writing of the Douhet theory. If the weapon in your hand cannot reach the enemy you must grasp another. David, when he slew Goliath, understood what we now call the Douhet theory. With the armies of the Allies and those of Germany lining rank upon rank, gun behind gun, tank behind tank, with wire and trench and land-mine and tank-trap and fortification reduplicated to resist hostile attack, we see on the Western Front the modern setting for a war of siege. But neither side has the true prerequisite for effective siege warfare—the complete encirclement of the enemy. In spite of that it is still siege war, for each side has its national economy so thrown out of gear as to produce a wearing-down effect. The process will be slower, that is all. Because we have no contiguous land frontiers, Ger- many hits out at our ships regardless of their kind. As every ship of any nationality might be charterable by us, Germany sinks all ships, no matter what flag they wear. So, while the Allied armies hold the fortified lines and their navies keep the great oceans and the coastal waters clear of enemy surface ships and sweep under the waters to disinfest them of mines and submarines, we must look to the skies for the power of retaliation. Against the territory of the enemy, ships, guns, tankg and infantry are at present immobilised. The air force alone is not immobilised. It is the same on both sides of the Rhine. :*:: ::; •; -'•-; '••'• l"-•:••-•••.;'•-, Mobility Immobilised Hitherto the only mobile forces that can strike against the territory of either side have been held in leash. Why? Is it that both sides hesitate to use them to avoid the perpetration of a mutual hari-kari? Or is it that the soT3ier mind insists that they be not employed until such time as the soldiery are ready to make their traditional grand assault? Or is it that neither side was really ready for the great challenge when the die was cast in September, 1939? Probably it is a mixture of all three. I know that in June, 1939, it was being said in whis- pered breath: // only we can keep them quiet until the year is out! The innuendo in the whisper was that by the beginning of 1940 we should have new airplanes of far more formidable striking power than the transition period aeroplanes, whose design was the sky-sign of our first rearmament. Probably the same remark was being made in Germany in a still lower whisper. So, while we have waited patiently for the soldierly mind to make itself up, and for the political fingers to grasp the nettle, the Air Force has been relegated (figuratively) to a front row in the spectator's gallery. Over Germany, Austria, Poland and Czechoslovakia to photograph and drop leaflets; over the Maginot Line to prevent photographs from being taken; over the Sieg- fried Line to take photographs. Defending ships against raiders. Convoy work. Search for submarines. The whole tale of six months' activity by the Royal Air Force (except for the sad addition of casualties) reads more like that of a gigantic exercise. And that is pre- cisely what it has been: an exercise, a testing period, from which the real strategy of air war has now derived. Next week; On Mobile and Fixed Air Forces.) Air Freighting HPHREE airlines operating in the mid-western districts of-L Canada, northern Manitoba, and Ontario together carried nearly ten million pounds of air freight during 1939. Theexact figure was 9,579,000 lb., and much of it was for gold- mining work going on in that area. Amsterdam to Lisbon K L.M. announce the starting on April 2 of a twice-weekly• service from Amsterdam to Lisbon via Oporto connecting with Pan American's Clipper service across the Atlantic. Onlymail and freight will be carried at present. The establishment of the service will reduce the mail time between New Yorkand Holland to four days. New Planes for K.L.M. TWO of the four Douglas DC5 airliners on order for theK.L.M. Royal Dutch Air Lines are now completed and are to be flown to the K.L.M. West Indian headquarters atCuracao, in the Dutch West Indies, from the Douglas factory in the U.S.A. They were originally intended for the K.L.M. European routes, and would probably have been used on theAmsterdam-London route had conditions been normal. As it is, they will fly on the West Indian network, principallybetween Curagao, Trinidad, and Tobago. Airways Corporation Takes Over ON April 1 the British Overseas Airways Corporationformally took over the interests of Imperial Airways and British Airways, and a cash payment of 34s. 6.613d. per share will be made on April 4 to holders of Imperial Airways shares. This amount is arrived at by adding to the purchase price of 32s. gd. for each £1 share interest at the rate of 4 per cent from April 1, 1938, less income tax at the rate of 6s. 3d. in the £1, which is is. g.6i5d. Though the chairman of Imperial Airways stated on May 22 last that shareholders would be permitted to take up stock in the Corporation, they will not now have this right as no public offer of the stock is being made. The stock is being disposed of in some other way. The terms of this disposal have not yet been disclosed, but it is reported that they wii be announced in Parliament shortly and a White Paper on the subject will be issued.
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