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Aviation History
1941
1941 - 0841.PDF
FLIGHT, e April 10th, 1941. X\R AND ARMY IN THE FUTURE (Continued) THE FOG OF WAR: United States Army Air Corps machines laying a smoke screen to cover the movements of tanks. regards as its speciality and in which it is chiefly inter- ested. As for fighters, while the safety of Great Britain must be the first and most important charge on the Fighter Command, the Army must have if ' " I mrT*1"" enough protection in the • i ^ x air to enable it to achieve its purpose, ft would be an exaggeration to say that the defeat of the French Army and the loss of all the equipment of the B.E.F. (in addition to 30,000-odd men) was due to the immunity with which the Stukas ware able to clear away resistance to the advance of the German tanks, but it is certain that a sufficient force of fighters in France would seriously have interfered with the operations of the Stukas. In fact, considering how the Fighter Command dealt with those same Stukas during the evacuation from" it does seem a possibility that France would not have collapsed so soon if the Allied armies had been properly supplied with fighter aircraft. Looking Ahead In the future it will be the business of the Army Co- operation Command of the R.A.F, to see that the Army is never again left short of any necessary class of aircraft. While the war continues fighter aircraft are being turned out from the factories as fast as Lord Beaverbrook can contrive. "Spitfire Funds" help to pay the bill, but neither they nor the Army Co-operation Command can get the machines turned out faster or in greater numbers. We must hope, and, in fact, we may assume, that the General Staff is satisfied that when next the Army begins to fight it will not be short of any essential air assistance. It has obviously agreed to the Air Ministry's contention that when the Army is only standing at the ready, as it is doing at present, it would be wasteful to keep so many squadrons of bombers and fighters on the ground because they either belonged to the Army or had been allocated .for work with it. If the next land fight should be dealing with a German invasion, every squadron of the R.A.F. in this country will be helping the Army to repel the invader, and the staff of the A.C. Command will, we have no doubt, be able to direct R.A.F. energies into the best channels. It has not been explained whether in such a case the A.C. Command would supersede both the Bomber and Fighter Commands and issue orders direct to the squadrons which normally work under those two bodies. Presumably not. One cannot safely change staffs entirely in the middle of a fight; but one may presume likewise that all requests or demands from the A.C. Command would be promptly met by the Commanders-in-Chief of the other two. The information as to where the danger was most critical would naturally come direct to the Army, and the A.C. Command would pass on the request for (say) three squadrons of fighters to fly at once to Blankshire. When ACHTUNG ! ACHTUNG ! A German radio trailer operating between the Luftwaffe and army. (we^declipB'"to say "if") the Army mp^es overseas once again, we may now fe§l confident that rfc will not again be let down by the lack of numbers in its Air Component, either of fighter or of bomber squadrons. It is extremely probable that there will be need for the Army Co-operation Command to prove its utility after the war. If one may guess the future from the experiences of the past, there may well be a strong inclination to cut our forces down once more. In the ensuing struggle with the lor of the Exchequer (who may then not be a former Secretary of State for Air) the Fighter Command will naturally be in a strong position for demanding the minimum number of squadrons which it considers desir- able. British taxpayers have learnt by a nerve-racking experience how much they owe to that Command. Then the danger will arise that the claims of the Army will be overlooked. It may sound paradoxical, but it is true, that in time of peace it is the Army, not the Air Force, which is the Cinderella of the Services in the eyes of the Treasury. A War Office demand for fighter squadrons over and above the pound of flesh demanded by the Fighter Command might well be very coldly received by the pundits of the Treasury. That will be the time for the Army Co-operation Command to make its weight felt. The Treasury may say that these fighters are not part of the Army and will not be paid tor in Army estimates, and they are surplus to the requirements of the Fighter Command ; therefore they must be an extravagance which the country cannot afford. But the demands of a Commander-in-Chief cannot be lightly brushed aside even by the Treasury. All who are sensible enough to be interested in the defence of the country should rejoice that at the head of the new Com- mand there is, not a mere A.O.C., but an A.Q.C.-in-C. Those last three letters may make all the difference to our early fortunes in (what we fondly hope wil^fiever happen) the next war.
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