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Aviation History
1941
1941 - 0779.PDF
>IL 3RD, I941. LJNKERQUE" (Continued) to fight while in that state of exhaustion, so they put a guard on his quarters to see that nobody should disturb him until he woke naturally. Words are too feeble to describe the spirit of men who have the will to fight on in such circumstances. One just feels thankful that Britain can still produce them. With the advance into Belgium and the subsequent retire- ment the, Lysanders came into their own. The guns were at last firing live shell against the enemy and the Lysanders could spot for them, besides doing their reconnaissance. They had their losses, of course, for there were certainly not enough fighters to give them adequate protection. But they were full of spirit, and they have a sting in their tail. That sting consists of only one machine gun, worked manually by an air gunner, but those air gunners are full of pluck and are fine shots. In one encounter a Lysander shot down two Me 109s and came home triumphant, though very much the worse for wear. The CO. of the squadron exclaimed, "I don't believe it! " and in good truth it sounds impossible.' But both the German fighters had come down on our side of the line and the wreckage could be produced in evidence. When it became obvious that the B.E.F. would have to be evacuated from France (if possible—the prospects did not seem good) the Air Component was ordered back in advance of the Army troops. They embarked their men and what equipment they could save at Boulogne and got across, while such aircraft as were able to fly flew the Channel. At once they turned about and commenced to operate from Hawkinge. The Lysander squadrons were given the task of dropping food, water and ammunition on the gallant self-sacrificing garrison of Calais. This enabled the battalions of Rifles to prolong their resistance, and no doubt eased the last hours of life for those who fell. The fighter squadrons of the Air Component suffered heavily but won great victories. No. 3 Squadron, for example, in eleven days of the fierce fighting in France destroyed 60 enemy aircraft, 11 of them in two days. The other squadrons were equally gallant. The Air Force in France Command In conclusion, a few words may be said about the institu- tion of the Command, the R.A.F. in France, under Air Marshal Barratt. It combined under one A.O.C.-in-C. the Air Component and the Advanced Air Striking Force. For the latter it was obviously an advantage to have someone on the spot to issue orders, instead of remaining under the Bomber Command with H.Q. in England. The A.O.C.- in-C. could also attend to matters of organisation and equip- ment which concerned the Air Component, such as promo tions, and it was recorded above that when the emergency 'came he reinforced it with two fighter squadrons. For ordinary operations, however, things went on much as they had gone before with the Air Component, A.V-M. Blount continuing to act as the air adviser to Lord Gort and issuing orders to the Component's squadrons. A.V-M. Blount had spent most of his service life in army co-operation, and his death in a flying accident after the Dunkerque evacua- tion was a severe loss to that branch of the R.A.F. Now we have an Army Co-operation Command with the experienced Air Marshal Barratt as A.O.C.-in-C., and we may hope that next time a B.E.F. takes the field there will be no need to improvise new organisations in, the middle of a campaign. THE ADVANCED AIR STRIKING FORCET HERE has been something like a spate of books pub- lished about the Advanced Air Striking Force which went to France what time the Maginot Line and the Westwall governed the situation on the western front. Of these books that of Charles Gardner, the B.B.C. observer, is by far the best which we have read. Not only is it the best written and the most readable, but its author is a man with knowledge of aircraft and of the Royal Air Force. In addition, he shows compre- hension of what it means (or should mean) to be a war corre- spondent, whereas some of the other journalists who were at- tached to A.A.S.F. merely regarded themselves as Fleet Street reporters out for.a story. The easiest way to get a story was to pick on one fighter pilot (it had to be a pilot of a fighter squadron—bomber squadrons were ineligible) who was more successful than his fellows and mention his name as often as possible. It was almost a sine qua non that this here should have a nickname. "Cobber " Kain filled the bill. THE ADVANCED AIR STRIKING FORCE. By Charles Gardner. (Hutchinson and Co. 7s. 6rf. net.) STRIKING FORCE STRIKERS:Ten Squadrons of the A.A.S.F. in France flew Fairey Battlemedium bombers. Two V.C.s were won by No. 12 Squadron. The R.A.F. in France started as two separate units, the Air Component of the B.E.F. which was with the Army along the Belgian frontier, and the A.A.S.F., which was centred at Reims with A.V-M. Playfair as its A.O.C. The latter was at first a detached (so to speak) Group of the Bomber Command. Afterwards the two were combined
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