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Aviation History
1940
1940 - 2408.PDF
i6o A Year of WarI T is rather hard to realise that September 3 marks the anniversary of the outbreak of war. No war, it has been said, is ever quite like the last, and the truth of that saying comes home to us when we consider the differences between 1914 and 1939-40 That one year should have witnessed the overrunning of nearly all Europe by the Germans w-ould have sounded incredible if some Old Moore had foretold it a year ago. In 1914 the Royal Flying Corps was just trying to find itself, conscious that a great future lay before it, but still un- certain of its powers and possibilities. Now, apart from the sleepless blockade by the Royal Navy, the Royal Air Force is the only arm with which we can actively hit the enemy. It is also the only arm with which we can repel the enemy's efforts to discommode us. How wonderfully complete is the present Royal Air Force compared with the rudimentary R.F.C. of 1914! No longer is it groping and feeling its way. Splendidly manned, splendidly equipped, with twenty-five years of training behind it, guided by an experienced and saga- cious staff, the Force is confidence personified. On another page a pilot of the Bomber Command tells of the confident spirit with which the squadrons of that body set forth night after night to find and destroy the resources of the enemy. Our fighter pilots, too, have surpassed all the high AUGUST 29, 194c hopes which we had entertained of them. If the German bombers will only come in sufficient numbers, they destroy their machines faster than the factories can turn them out. As the Prime Minister said,'"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." The Air Over the SeaT HE Bomber and Fighter Commands had to wait for what seemed to them long, weary months before they could use their full powers against the enemy. But from the first day of war up to the present, and no doubt for all the remaining months or years of the war, the Coastal Command has been going, so to speak, full throttle ahead. Until the war spread to the Low Countries and France, the Coastal Command pretty well absorbed all the air interest of the war. It was then a maritime war, and the Coastal Command's chief function is reconnaissance for the Royal Navy. In these anniversary reminiscences we must not forget the Fleet Air Arm. It has only had a separate existence since 1937, and it might easily be equipped with more suitable types of aircraft. None the less, it has done splendidly. Some of its dive-bombing and torpedo- dropping attacks have been magnificent' feats. The Admiralty has sent a signal to say "We are proud of the Fleet Air Arm." The whole country will associate itself with that message. FROM ME TO YOU Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding and pilots of the Fighter Command have presented Lord Beaverbrook with this nice heap of scrap metal from destroyed German machines for aircraft production. In the period August 11 to August 18 645 enemy machines were brought down in or round Britain.
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