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Aviation History
1941
1941 - 0826.PDF
266 APRIL IOTH, 1941. and children, there would be a good case for a change of our policy. The demand is simply one of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, and gain on either side questionable. The object of legal punishments in any country is preventive, the prevention of similar crimes in the future. It is not vindictive retribution, which does no good to anyone. The character of the British people is not vindictive, but in this case suffer- ing and rage have in some parts brought about a frame of mind foreign to normal British nature. Qolf and QoebbelsL AST year, when the air blitz was at its height, the ^ Richmond Golf Club established some temporary rules to cover the unusual circumstances which might arise. Balls moved by enemy action could be replaced without penalty, but a player whose stroke was affected by the simultaneous explosion of a bomb night, for a penalty of one stroke, play ; nother ball from the same place. The news spread to Germany, and, as was to be expected, Goebbels sneered. That sort of bravado did not impress him, and, anyway, German pilots never bombed anything but military objectives; all the now familiar rigmarole. Superficially, there does not appear to be any very direct connection between the war, particularly the air war, and the Richmond Golf Club, except in so far as it is provided by several members of the club being familiar figures in the British aircraft industry. Actually, the association is not so very far-fetched. Hitler has come up against an unexpected obstacle in Yugoslavia. Just when he thought he had that country bluffed and bullied as he had bluffed and bullied so many otht; States, the bloodless revolution took place, and, over- night, Hitler found that he did not have Yugoslavia in his pocket. He discovered that the Yugoslavs, to use an expressive Americanism, don't scare worth a damn. Still the connection between Yugoslavia and a British golf club is not very obvious. It is necessary to go back a few years, to the time when Yugoslavia bought a number of Hawker Furies. A team of Yugoslav officers came to this country for acceptance tests and other busi- ness connected with the purchase, and they were fre- quent guests at the golf cluh. We do hot recall all the names, but there was General Naditch, who was Yugoslav Chief of the Air Staff at the time ; there was the late Col. Stanoievitch, who was Director of Technical Development; there was Col. Bajdek, in charge cf 'he test flying establishment; and there was Col. Ruptitch, • test pilot. Since those days Yugoslavia has had a very pro-British outlook, thanks largely to her air force and to the good work done there by such representatives of the British aircraft industry as Mr. Tom. G. Mapple- beck and General Kirstitch. In more recent times the Yugoslav air force has bought from this country Blenheims and Hurricanes, and licences for manufacture have been granted, so that it may be assumed that Yugoslavia is not ill-prepared to meet the Luftwaffe should the need arise. The Hurri- cane has plenty of range to accompany bombers rrom Belgrade to Vienna, and the Yugoslav air force might be expected to give a good account of itself until the R.A.F. could get to work. So there is, after all, quite a direct connection between British golf and Yugoslav air war. The great oak and the tiny acorn again. INSPIRATION IN OILS. Portraits of two airmen V.C.s of the present war are to be hung in the ante-room of the officers messat their respective squadrons. They are ot Wing Cdr. R. A. B. Learoyd, V.C., and S|f. John Hannah, V.C., and were painted by Mr. Frank Salisbury. Mr. F. Handley Page is here seen at the little ceremony at*which he "presented the portraits to the two V.C.s, who handed them over to their respective corrtmirvding officers. \
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