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Aviation History
1940
1940 - 1439.PDF
andAIRCRAFT ENGINEER FIRST AERONAUTICAL WIEKLY IN THE WORLD .• FOUNDED WO9 Editor C. M. POULSEN Managing Editor G. GEOFFREY SMITH Chief Photographsr JOHN YOXALL Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices : DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, S.E.I Telegrams : Truditur, Sedist, London. Telephone : Waterloo 3333 (50 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. 263, RENFIELD ST., GLASGOW, C.2. Telegrams : Iliffe, Glasgow. Telephone: Central 4857. Home and Canada : Other Countries : Year, £2 6 0. Year, £2 9 0. 6 months. £1 3 0. 6 months, £1 4 6. 3 months, I Is. 6d. 3 months, 12s. 3d. No. 1638. Vol. XXXVII. MAY 16, 1940 Thursdays, Pries 9d. The Outlooks Gloves OffT HINGS have been happening with bewildering rapidity since the last issue of Flight was pub- lished. Then the British forces had been with- drawn from the Aandalsnes district ot Norway, and there was to be a debate on the Norwegian events in the House of Commons. Now Hitler has repeated his Danish and Norwegian tactics by '' coming to the rescue" of Holland and Belgium in order to prevent them from being invaded by Great Britain and France; and we in this country find ourselves not only with en- tirely new strategical problems to tackle, but with a new Government to direct the process. The country as a whole has received with something like relief the new phase upon which the war has en- tered. The static war was getting us no nearer, at least not visibly so, to a decision, and the reaction of the man in the street was a mixture of indignation that two more neutral countries had been set upon by the bullies, and a feeling that now at last we might begin the war in real earnest. No.fair-minded person will deny that Mr. Chamber- lain had a most difficult task as Prime Minister. It is so easy for the Opposition to ask why we did not do this, that or the other. Now those who have shouted the loudest will be given a chance to see what they can do. But in all fairness to the previous Government it should be borne in mind that the stalemate which existed tied their hands a great deal. That the new Government, under Mr. Churchill, will wage a very different type of war has already become evident. But conditions have changed, and it is as well to realise that the invasion of the Low Countries, had it come before the change of Government, might well have kept Mr. Chamberlain in office. That Mr. Churchill will strike, and strike hard when- ever the opportunity offers, may be taken for granted. That he will make mistakes seems possible; the great pages of history were not written by men who made no mistakes. And if Germany thought to get a quick advan- tage by invading Holland and Belgium while the effete democracy on the other side was changing Government, she has been disappointed. The response of the Allies to the appeals of these countries has been as swift as it was effective. A Difficult TaskW ITH the political aspect of the Government changes we are little concerned. That all parties should be represented is only- sound sense. But we view with some concern the frequent changes of Air Ministers which have occurred lately. It is all very well to argue that it is the Air Council as a whole which directs air affairs, and that so long as the service chiefs on the Council are the right men, it matters little who is president of the Air Council. But the personality of the Air Minister can go a very long way towards influencing air policy, and no man can learn to weigh impartially the conflicting claims put forward "until he has obtained a very thorough insight into what is an extraordinarily complicated sub- ject. It takes a clever man to do that inside a year, and Sir Archibald Sinclair is likely to be faced with problems which had not yet arisen when Sir Kingsley Wood handed over the Air Ministry to Sir Samuel Hoare. Apart from the fact that the day of patrols over the North Sea as the chief activity of the K.A.F. is over, and that the Bomber Command is about to be given an opportunity of showing what it can really do, there will from now onwards be a much greater wastage in air- craft and personnel than hitherto. In some ways one might say that the war with Germany did not really start until Friday last. In other words, we may now see the war take the course, which everyone expected it to take last September.
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