FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1941
1941 - 0829.PDF
APRIL IOTH, 1941. WAR IN THE AIR (Continued into use by the Bomber Command, andwas first used in a night attack on indus- trial centres in Emden. The new-weapons have five times the blasting effect of any dropped previously by theR.A.F. They are filled with an ex- tremely effective explosive capable ofdestroying buildings over a wide area, and the concussion would be felt manymiles away. •\ The Royal Air Force came into beingon April ist, 1918, and on the twenty- third anniversary Air Chief Marshal SirArthur Longmore, G.C.B., D.S.O., Air Officer Commanding - in - Chief MiddleEast, broadcast from Cairo. In the course of an interesting speech he tracedthe growth and expansion of the R.A.F. and also gave a number of personal ex-periences of pilots who were the pioneers of Service aviation. The Air ChiefMarshal recalled that our present Prime Minister, Mr. Winston Churchill, hadalways taken a very keen interest in the Air Force and given tremendousassistance to the development of the Service in its very early days. Turning to the present war, he referredto the fact that over one thousand Italian aircraft had been destroyed in theMiddle East, and paid a great tribute to R.A.F. lighters at Malta, who hadput up a magnificent defence. Then he went on to say : '' Co-operating with theNavy, the R.A.F. aircraft allotted for sea and enemy port reconnaissances havedone splendid work. Immediately pre- ceding.last week's naval victory, a RoyalAir Force sea reconnaissance aircraft had located the enemy forces and continued to report their movements. R.A.F.tKimbers, acting on this information, attacked and successfully hit andcrippled one of the cruisers, possibly two, and one of the destroyers out ofthose finally disposed of by Admiral Cunningham's forces in his great victoryon which the R.A.F. Middle East sends its expression of admiration. " Manyof the bomber crews who took pait in that operation were only a few weeksago helping our Army in their Libyan victory—a good example of the ad-vantages of a flexible Air Force not tied to one role, but available for employ-ment where most needed at the time. We can look back on these achievementswith some satisfaction, but it is what lies ahead that matters in war—we havemany storms to weather yet. To the Royal Air Force in the Middle East Isend my anniversary greetings and my appreciation of their great and successfulefforts on all fronts. Good flying to you all through the clouds and sand ahead.Just one more message, and that from the Royal Air Force Middle East to theRoyal Air Force at home: ' Birthday greetings, good luck and our congratula-tions. We know how much you did to save England last summer and howgreatly you will contribute to the final victory.' The Italian destroyer mentioned abovewas not the only one which tried to escape from Massawa. Later news hastold of'two more, and both were faith- fully dealt with by aircraft of the FleetAir Arm. The activity of that arm in the Red Sea suggests that perhaps H.M.S. Eagle has moved down theresince the Formidable joined the Meet at Alexandria. It has been announced that a gooddeal of the air work in the eastern parts of the East African theatre has beencarried out by R.A.F. squadrons flying across from Aden. The Germans had evidently managedto land considerable mechanised forces at Tripoli, and they have infused somespirit of enterprise into the Italians there. The result is a British evacuationof Benghazi, which is distinctly annoy- ing. We have learnt by experience thatGeneral Wavell will never sacrifice the substance for the shadow, and he is notthe man to lose valuable British troops by holding on to a place which gave nogood opportunities for a successful defence. He withdraws, to strike againat his own good time. He did the same thing at Berbera some months ago. We may hope that the real meaningof this evacuation is that the bulk ol our troops are needed more urgently else-where, first, in finishing off the last Italian resistance in East Africa, and,secondly, in preparing help for the Greeks. We may also hope, with someconfidence, that the naval victory will make it much harder for the Germans tomaintain or reinforce their contingents in Tripolitania. While the Italian fleetwas in being it was obviously impossible to string British cruisers and destroyersout along the African coast to watch for enemy transports. For the future itshould be safe to go much farther in this direction. CONVINCING ARGUMENTS. The belief that bombs, more bombs and still more bombs are the only arguments that the Nazis arecapable of understanding is widely held and Bomber Command continues to do better and better work in ".-twitting over " this •emphatic form of reasoning. Here we see a bombing-up party hoisting another " message " into the rack for immediate delivery.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
