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Aviation History
1942
1942 - 0905.PDF
V AIRCRAFT ENGINEER FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WORLD •• FOUNDED 1909 Editor C. M. POULSEN Managing Editor GEOFFREY SMITH, M.B.E. Chief Photographer JOHN YOXALL Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices: DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, S.E1 Telegrams : Truditur, Sedist, London. COVENTRY : 8-10, CORPORATION ST., Telegrams: Autocar, Coventry. Telephone: Coventry S 2 I 0. BIRMINGHAM, 2 : G Ul LDHALL BUILDINGS, NAVIGATION ST. Telegrams: Autopress, Birmingham. Telephone: Midland 29 71 (5 lines). Telephone: Waterloo 3333 (35 lines). MANCHESTER, 3 : GLASGOW, C.2 : 260, D-EANSGATE, 26B, R E N FI E LD ST., Telegrams : lliffe, Manchester. Telegrams: lliffe, Glasgow. Telephone : Blackfriars -4-412. Telephone: Central 4857. SUBSCRIPTION RATES Home and Abroad : Year, £3 10. 6 months, £1 Registered at the C.P.O, as a Newspaper. 10 6. 3 months, 15s. 3d. No. 1740. Vol. XLI. APRIL 30th, 1942. Thursdays, One Shilling. The Outlook The Joint Planning White Paper T HE White Paper issued last week under the title of "The Organisation for Joint Planning" was evidently mainly intended to show that (in its own words) "the Joint Staff advocated from time to time in Parliament and the Press has in fact existed for many years." It is a good thing that that fact should be known, even though the claim may seem to have been •4ttber exaggerated. In fact, it is not altogether easy for the ordinary civilian reader to grasp how the organi sation described actually works. Probably only those who are actually engaged in one of the sections set forth in the diagram which accompanied the White Paper can thoroughly grasp how far the organisation works in practice as a joint General Staff. The whole of this organisation, as set forth in the diagram, is under the Defence Committee, and its chair man is the Minister of Defence, who is also the Prime Minister. Mr. Churchill has a great capacity for work, and he is known to have made a deep study of strategy. It is also out of the question that anybody but he should be Prime Minister during this war. At the same time, one cannot help wishing that he could devote the whole of his time and energies to the task of Defence Minister, leaving the other duties of Prime Minister to someone else. Joint committees may perhaps make a joint General Staff, as the White Paper claims, but they do not make one Commander-in-Chief for the whole of the country's war effort. It seems that Hitler holds that position, just as in the past Kings like Alexander the Great and Frederick the Great held it. Now, in various theatres of war, single Commanders-in-Chief have been appointed over the forces of all three Services, as well as of all the United Nations. That appears to us to be the ideal, and at our headquarters in London we British do not yet seem to have attained it. Bombers and New Guinea T HE Royal Australian Air Force, with American assistance, is doing a remarkable piece of work by holding the Japanese at bay in New Guinea and the neighbouring islands. Despite their efforts in Burma, the Japanese have good reason to desire the invasion of Australia as a means of securing their flank while they try to make headway towards India, possibly with the idea of meeting a German advance from the Middle East. To secure their position in the Pacific they need to seize all the naval bases of the United Nations, and now that Singapore and Java have fallen, Sydney becomes the most important one from which in due time an Allied fleet may undertake the reconquest of the Pacific. If Japan's sea* power is broken, then her troops in all the places which they have seized will be left, so to speak, in the air. For this reason the enemy is most anxious to estab lish himself in New Guinea and make there a base for an attack on Australia. Australia, now working under the orders of General MacArthur, is meeting this threat with her Air Force. Her bombers are constantly raid ing Rabaul, Lae and Salamaua with remarkably good effect, while her fighters and A.A. guns are protecting Port Moresby, which is the next Japanese objective. All this dynamic defence is being carried out with remarkably good results, and the enemy is now in no better position than he was weeks ago. At Rabaul he
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