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Aviation History
1940
1940 - 1357.PDF
MAY 9, 1940 BIRTH OF THE ROYAL AIR FORCE (CONTD.) mended to consist of three flights of four machines. At that time (the first German Weltkrieg was even then looming on the horizon) there were some eleven pilots in the Army and about eight in the Navy. A site for the Central Flying School was selected at Upavon on Salisbury Plain ; it began work in August, 1912, under Capt. Godfrey Paine, R.N. The Naval Wing was located at Eastchurch, under Cdr. C. R. Samson. The Military Wing began life with No. 1 Balloon Company of the Air Battalion, R.E., transformed into No. 1 Squadron, Military Wing, R.F.C., stationed at Farnborough. No. 2 Squadron formed at the same place from the nucleus of aeroplane pilots. No. 3 Squadron formed at Larkhill fiom No. 2 Company of the Air Battalion. The real rivalry between naval and military aviation then began. It was November, 1912, when Winston Churchill, as First Lord of the Admiralty, created an Air Department in the Admiralty to deal with all questions of naval aviation. Commodore Murray Sueter (who had had much to do with the furtherance of naval aviation prior to that date) was appointed Director of the new Department. The War Office took up the challenge and created the Military Aeronautics Directorate in 1913 under Brigadier Gen. Sir David Henderson. The Air Committee A forerunner of the Air Ministry held its first meeting in July, 1912, under the title of the Air Committee. Its purpose was to co-ordinate the efforts of the two Service Departments in aviation. Its members were: Col. Seely, the Secretary of State for War, as Chairman ; Vice-Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, Second Sea Lord, as Vice-Chairman (at a slightly later date) ; the officers commanding the C.F.S., the Naval Wing, the Military Wing, the Director of Military Training, the Director of the Admiralty Air De- partment, and the Superintendent of the Royal Aircraft Factory. But, despite the Air Committee, from 1912 until 1918 the two branches of the Air Service went their own ways. For the first two years of that period the work of the R.N. airmen was largely experimental, and it was not until the outbreak of war in 1914 that the R.N.A.S. got into a regular stride. The seafaring side of the air had so much more spade work to do, for the seaplane was slower in development than the landplane. During this time the military Air Service trained pilots and planned the organisation which was even then deemed necessary for the war which the more far-seeing of the officers of the day began to realise must eventuate. The •officers of the Military Wing knew when, where and how their services would be required—on outbreak of war to .go with an expeditionary force to observe from the air •for the ground forces; and so they were training to become a reconnaissance section of the Army. The average time in the air to qualify as pilots was then about twenty-five hours ; and to encourage civilian flying all applicants foi the R.F.C. had first to obtain the Royal Aero Club aviator's certificate at their own expense. In January, 1912, Capt. H. P. T. Lefroy, the Army wireless officer, began experiments with wireless apparatus in the first B.E. machine ot the Royal Aircraft Factory, flown by Geoffrey de Havilland. In the same year Com- mander Samson, flying the first Short sea- plane, succeeded in transmitting messages erratically up to a distance of ten miles. In July and September, 1912., three Army monoplanes crashed and their six occupants were killed. The Monoplanes Accidents Investigation Committee recom- mended that monoplanes should be f The Short 225 which did such excellent work during the 1914-18 war. It was with a 225 that Flight Commander C. H. K. Edmonds torpedoed a Turkish transport in the Sea of Marmora. banned. More than twenty years were to pass before the effect of this Committee's ban was to be effaced from the British Air Services. . . . In the Army manoeuvres of that same year the aero- planes of the Military Wing proved themselves by pro- viding the commander of the defending forces. Gen. Grierson, with full details of the attacking forces under Sir Douglas Haig long before the cavalry could make con- tact with the enemy. . . The months hurried past. In June, 1914, the Royal Flying Corps, Military Wing, was training in a Concentra- tion Camp at Netheravon. Their work was all directed to one end—Army reconnaissance. The review of the Fleet by King George V at Spithead from July 18 to 22 gave the R.N.A.S. a similar opportunity for practice mobilisation. The naval aircraft were con- centrated at Portsmouth, Weymouth and Calshot. Seven- teen seaplanes and two flights ot landplanes manoeuvred over the Fleet. That demonstration surprised some naval officers who had seen little of aviation. The naval pilots had practised fighting in the air at Eastchurch. In this they were ahead, not only of the Royal Flying Corps, but of the German Air services. On July 27, 1914, the naval landplane units, under Commander Samson, were visiting C.F.S. There they re- ceived orders to return at once to Eastchurch. The naval seaplanes assembled at Isle of Grain, Felixstowe and Yar- mouth on the same day. Two days later the R.N.A.S. received orders that the duties of scouting and patrol were to be secondary to the protection of the country from hostile aircraft. The German threat lay in their possession of at least eleven rigid airships. Against that threat, at the out- break of war in August, 1914, the R.N.A.S. had only two aeroplanes and one airship armed with machine guns. One of the guns had been lent to the Admiralty by a private owner! The only effective weapon for use against an air- ship was the Hales grenade fired from an ordinary service rifle. The R.F.C. had neglected aerial fighting and had concentrated on reconnaissance developments in cameras and wireless. Army pilots were not concerned with home defence. Their job was overseas with the Army Expedi- tionary Force. August, 1914 In August, 1914, the R.F.C. had four aeroplane squad- rons ready lor war, another almost ready, and a sixth in nucleus state. These squadrons were Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. (On January 1, 1914, No. 1 (Airship) Squadron, Military Wing, complete, was transferred to the Naval Air Service by private arrangement between Seeley and Churchill. Thenceforth the Army was to have no lighter- than-air aircraft). Behind the R.F.C. squadrons there was an Aircraft Park at Farnborough. And that was all. A general purpose bomber of the last war. The D.H. 9a (400 h.p. Liberty engine) remained in service for over ten years.
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