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Aviation History
1941
1941 - 1425.PDF
JUNE 26TH, 1941. FLIGHT explanation to offer. It would have preferred at all timesto have more squadrons, fighters and others, too, than it had been allowed to raise, and it was not its fault thatnumbers were low in 1939. It had done the best it could with the force available, always bearing in mind that thesafety of Great Britain must not be sacrificed. To this line of argument the only exception which can be takenis that in the past the Air Ministry had been slow to recog- nise the necessity of a high proportion of fighters in itstotal strength. Its policy had been to raise two bomber squadrons for every one fighter squadron. As the airdefence of Great Britain is the first duty of the Air Minis- try (in fact, the strongest and most incontrovertiblejea,ipn for having an Air Ministry and a separate Air Force) y policy was of doubtful wisdom. However, in thedays when the Fox and the Hart in turn were faster than the best British fighters, there was some excuse for lookingon the latter as poor investments. The root cause of our aerial shortcomings was a. faultysystem of budgeting. Even in the days of economy and disarmament the needs of the Army and the needs of ourindependent air power (in both defence and attack) ought to have been separately computed. If the Treasury allowedthe Air Force only x bombers and y fighters, these ought not to have been reckoned as including the numbers to be lentto the Army. Both x and y were needed for our air cam- paign. The Army should have been allowed z fighters anda bombers in addition. Weak War Office Position The War Office was not in a strong position for insistingthat its requirements should be met, because it did not pay for its air squadrons. The Admiralty was wiser andgave an appropriation-in-aid to the Air Estimates to cover the cost of the Fleet Air Arm. The War Office seems tohave accepted silently what the Air Ministry offered it. The Cabinet, as suggested above, possibly thought that theterm " Army Co-operation " covered all needs. Do we British ever learn from our mistakes? It seemsas if efforts are being made to provide the Army with air support in the future The first step was the formationof the Army Co-operation Command. The idea at the basis of this body is that the Air Force shall really and ade-quately cater for the needs of the Army in bombers and fighters as well as in squadrons for tactical reconnaissance,but that on occasions like the present when the bulk of the Army is in Great Britain, the squadrons concerned shall beavailable for ordinary Air Force work. The case has been well put and on the face of it isattractive ; but still doubts arise as to whether it will really meet the, needs and will guard against dangers in the futuresimilar to those which have cost us dear in the past. It is doubtful whether the Prime Minister is satisfied withthe present expedient. In his speech on June 10 he said: " Last year when we were considering our affairs the eat need was to multiply fighters and bombers. It became an enormously important matter. Nevertheless, propor-tions of the army co-operation squadrons were associated with the military forces, but not on the scale which wasdesirable or to the extent which was desirable. It is 0/ the utmost consequence that every division, especially everyarmoured division, should have a chance to live its daily life and training in a close and precise relationship with aparticular number of aircraft that it knows and that it can call up at will and need, and under its own command, forthe purposes of everything that is a tactical operation. But it was not possible last year to provide it on alarge scale without trenching on other domains which were more vital to our safety But it is the intention to goforward upon that path immediately and to provide the Army with a considerably larger number of aeroplanessuited entirely to the work they have to dn and. above all. to the development of that wireless connection between theground forces and the air and the military which the Ger- mans have carried to such an extraordinary point of perfec-tion." Looking* to the Future This seems to mean that Mr. Churchill has a comingchange in mind, but what it is he has not made clear. His use of the term '' army co-operation '' leaves one indoubt as to whether he merely means tactical reconnais- sance squadrons or all the descriptions of aircraft which anarmy needs. On the whole, he seems to mean the latter. Otherwise it would have been superfluous for him to stressthe desirability of army divisions and aircraft living their daily lives together and training together, and the aircraftbeing under divisional command—for those words merely describe the position of the Lysander squadrons for yearspast. We all know that the Army is to be provided with air-craft capable of dive-bombing. It may be that the Prime Minister intends these, and perhaps other classes of squad-rons too, to be under the command of divisional com- manders and to live permanently with the troops. That*would, in effect, be an army air arm, even if the squadrons continued to be part of the Air Force. The Air Ministry contention, that it would be wastefulto keep squadrons aground when the Army was not fight- ing but when there was air work to be done, is just. Butthe principle might be established that on such occasions the War Office lends the squadrons to the Air Ministry—not that when a B.E.F. goes overseas the Air Ministry- lends squadrons to the War Office. That plan has beentried, and it has failed. We must look to the iuture as well. When the presentwar is over there will certainly be reductions in our armed forces. There will be another call for economy. Howeverwe economise if is essential that we budget for army fighters and army bombers as additional to, and not partof, the allotted strength of the Bomber and Fighter Commands. Canadian Squadron's Anniversary WITH more than 50 enemy machines to its credit duringthe first year of its operation in this country, No.. 1Royal Canadian Air Force Fighter Squadron has just cele- brated the anniversary of its arrival in Britain. Although the squadron actually landed here last June, itdid not go into action with its own Canadian-built Hurricanes until late in August—during the Battle of Britain—but itsleader, Sqn. Ldr. E. A. McNab, had seized a chance to open the score just previously when, flying with an R.A.F.squadron to get battle experience, he attacked and shot down a Dornier. This was the first enemy aircraft to be destroyed bythe R.C.A.F. Shortly afterwards, however, the squadron regis- tered its first victory as a unit by bringing down two moreDornier bombers. Then, on September 15th last, the day when no fewer than 185 German machines were brought down,No 1 R.C.A.F. Fighter Squadron accounted for 14 raiders— a highly creditable "bag" for any single squadron. Sqn Ldr McNab said afterwards that he estimated therewere probably 1,000 or more aircraft in the sky altogether, just south of London, on that memorable day. More Aircraft from U.S.A. "PVEFENCE officials in America expect that within the nexti-J ten weeks the annual rate of aircraft production, which is steadily rising, will reach a total of something in theregion of 30,000 machines, according to a recent message from the Times correspondent in New York. The present rate of production of military types is about1,500 a month, but orders to the value of $5,000,000,000 are now on the books of the various aircraft firms, motor manu-facturing companies and other industries in America now turn- ing out aeroplanes, and there is every possibility that thisfigure will soon be doubled. In approximately a year's time no fewer than 41,000 air-craft already on order will have been delivered, and of these Great Britain and Allied Governments will have r6,ooo, theremaining 25,000 going to the U.S. Army and Navy. These will be supplemented by orders for a further 25,000aircraft, of which Great Britain will receive approximately one-half. Included in this additional batch of orders is onefoi 3,600 bombers, but the actual proportion of bombers to fighters and other military and naval types is not stated.
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