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Aviation History
1940
1940 - 1954.PDF
20 land as well as bombing such U-boats as it sights. The Fleet Air Arm of late has not confined its activities to spotting, reconnaissance and occasional fighting. -It has been dive-bombing with great success and with a deter- mination which has been marked by the loss of some gallant crews. The Action at OranT HE Government's action in dealing with the French Navy at Oran and elsewhere is a matter of historic moment, but not primarily of aero- nautical interest, and it is hardly for Flight to comment on it. There is aeronautical interest, none the less, in one detail of the actron at Oran. The formidable French battle cruiser Strasbourg escaped from the harbour and made off for Toulon, where she would undoubtedly fall into the hands of the enemy. It was important to take steps to prevent this. With due foresight, the Admiralty had sent the Ark Royal with Vice-Admiral Somerville's force, and she despatched some of her T.S.R. aircraft after the Strasbourg. At least one torpedo got home, and that will deny the use of the ship to the enemy for months to come. We have lost two large aircraft car- riers, perhaps more, in this war, and naturally some people have been asking if such vulnerable ships are worth while. That one torpedo may be a sufficient answer to the question. Aircraft-borne torpedoes have not figured much in the naval fighting so far, but that one may have an important bearing on coming operations. Since then we have been- told of aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm being very active in the Mediterranean. The Italians have built no carriers, holding that in that in- land sea shore-based bombers can do the work better. JULY II, 1940 Their theory has a good deal in it, but none the less we are just now finding ship-borne aircraft very useful in those waters. • Pooling ExperienceS IR ARCHIBALD SINCLAIR has marked his regime at the Air Ministry by making two .new appoint- ments, one a new Member of the Air Council to deal with all training matters, and the other a committee over which Sir Robert Brooke-Popham will preside to collect the experiences of officers and airmen who have been in action against the enemy and hear their ideas as to the best ways of "biffing the Boche." That bit of graphic slang dates from the last war, and the ap- pointment of Sir Robert reminds us that, in some ways at least, we are correcting mistakes of the last war. In the last war a pilot, as soon as he had reached the stage now represented by leaving an elementary school to enter a F.T.S., was usually sent to France to learn all the rest of his business in the face of the enemy or die in the attempt. Now at the F.T.S. he passes first through the Intermediate Flying Squadron, then through the Advanced Flying Squadron, and after leaving the school, complete with "wings" and thoroughly versed in navigation, bombing, firing, fighting and all the rest of it, he is sent to an operational training unit where he is given a final polish. But to be under fire teaches many things which no school can teach, and now, as twenty-four years ago, the clever pilot or air gunner finds out things for himself. Sometimes they are useful, sometimes not so useful. The Brooke-Popham Committee will hear all that the fighting men can tell them, sift the ideas out, and pass on the really useful ones to the appropriate quarters. ii *J/ *fr PRETTY, BUT— : This issue contains the first reasonably detailed description of the Italian Savoia-Marchetti S.M.85 single- seater, twin-engined dive-bomber. In addition to the above assthetically attractive view of a formation of these machines, other pictures appear on pages d and 25. The S.M.85, although interesting as an offensive weapon, would stand little chance against a Hurricane, Spitfire, or Defiant, or, for that matter, against a Skua, Roc or Gladiator.
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