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Aviation History
1942
1942 - 0066.PDF
22 FLIGHT JANUARY 8TH, 1942 was always a weapon in a different class, and was obvi ously designed mainly for aggressive purposes. The Germans used their single-engined Messerschmitts for an offensive purpose when they sent them as escorts to their day-bombers in the Battle of Britain, but in that case the bombers were intended to be the major weapons, the fighters acting merely as ancillaries. The daylight sweeps by the K.A.F. over Northern France have been different in character, for in them the fighters played the chief part. Sometimes they acted alone; at other times they were accompanied by comparative] ' small forces of bombers. The object always was to compel the Germans to withdraw their experienced fighters from the Russian front and so give definitely useful help to our 'Ally. In this our object was fully attained, for it has been calculated that before the end of the year about 50 per cent, of the fighter strength of the Luftwaffe had been concentrated in France. There were days when the British losses exceeded those of the enemy,- but it is the total which matters. During the period of the most intense aggression by Fighter Com mand—that is to say, from the middle of June to the end if August—500 enemy aircraft were shot down by lers in our sweeps for a loss of only 250 of our machines. These figures tell a very different story the profit and loss account of the German ssion in the Battle of Britain, when the attackers the heaviest losses. 'Our offensive has not been ily expensive. Unily of Command IN 1918 Marshal Foch was appointed Generalissimo of all the land and air forces in France and Bel gium after forrr years of divided command. In 1939 Lord Gort's B.E.F. was placed under the command of General Gamelin. Both these earlier attempts at unity of command have been overshadowed by the compre hensive step taken at Washington, which puts General Wavell in supreme command of all forces—sea, land and air—in the South-west Pacific. We believe that no step like this has ever been taken before. That a General Officer should command all the air forces in his area is, we believe, only common sense, but that he should have general control over naval forces too, in what is mainly a naval campaign, is unprecedented. Another anomaly, as some people will doubtless think it, is that the British naval forces in this area are to work under the orders of the American Admiral. The air interest in this unusual organisation is represented by an American Army officer as General Wavell's deputy— which shows that it is sometimes convenient to have an air arm in an army. Hitherto the Japanese forces have been under a single direction, while the Allies have groped, so to speak, under separate British, American and Dutch Generals and Admirals. Now one master mind will control the whole strategy. This is the firstfruits of the Washington Conference. \ THE BITER BIT : A Ju 87 dive-bomber, flown by an Italian pilot, which turned over on having to make a forced landing in our lines on the Western Desert. The main bomb is still in the ejector cradle which, at the moment of release, lowers the bomb to a point from which it can fall without hitting the airscrew. The manner in which the airscrew blades have broken shows the enormous strength developed by laminated wood.
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