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Aviation History
1942
1942 - 1730.PDF
194 WAR IN THE AIR No doubt many of it, with curses not before the war? them remember loud but deep. The carrier H.M.S. Eagle has gone at last, victim of a submarine in the western Mediterranean. To some of us older followers of air matters she recalls the Schneider contest of 1927, when she lay off Venice, much for the same reasons that the U.S. warship Pittsburgh came to Cowes for the 1920 Schneider. But she spent a good por tion of her service life on the China station, and if the British prisoners in Hong Kong hear the news they will have far more memories of the old carrier to recall, some, perhaps, of entertainments and jollities on board. Her history was certainly strange, for she was originally laid down in this country as a battleship for the Chilian Navy, to be called Almirante Coch rane, but she had not been finished by August, 1914, and so was taken over by the British Admiralty. She was not finished in time to take part in the last war. In 1924 she was -con verted into an aircraft carrier, presum ably because"~"s^e did not harmonise FOR THE AIR/SEA WAR : One of the merchantmen which the Americans have converted into aircraft carriers for convoy protection. Hangarage for about 30 aircraft is provided. well with the other battleships of the Royal Navy. She was fairly large, 22,600 tons displacement, but only accommodated 20 aircraft. In the pre sent year she was just about the least useful of our carriers. Still, we may remember that her Swordfish took part in the famous attack on Taranto, though the Eagle herself was not pre sent, and her T.S.R.s flew off from H.M.S. Illustrious. It may be assumed that the lull in the fighting in Egypt has been because ANTI-DIVE BOMBER : The rocket device used by the four maritime regiments of the Royal Artillery. A rocket takes a wire high into the air and at the end of its travel a parachute opens to let the wire down slowly. both sides have wanted reinforce ments. General Auchinleck has obvi ously been cautious, and one cannot forget the heavy tank losses suffered by the British in the battle of Knights-. bridge. With his supply lines running all round the Cape it naturally takes time for him to bring his armour up to strength again. In the fighting which has been described he has been noticeably careful not to risk his re maining armour too much, doing as much as possible with infantry, artil lery and air forces. It is fortunate that he seems still well supplied with the 25-pounder guns which have proved such a success. The delay must be galling to both sides. Rommel_iBJustbe tantalised at being sopeaf"the great*N£rize of Alex- andrj*r*without" being able\o grasp it. le British ofeject has always been to "attack until Rommel's forces are de- is stroved. marking obvious, wh has trnqs BrifferT tion so lo halt be lb while the reason f the British side ust speculate as to rg the Axis The enemy uge quantities/of motor om the air attacks of the id his lines of/communica ng and difficult, though not s those rouruf the Cape. It noticed t^fat Rommel has king mucjy\ise of barges from e ports of Benghazi and Tobruk to bring stuff \fpjK> his forward positions, thus savina^fround transport, and the Empirevsircraft. very often naval T.S J^reThave been concentrating their ajJ*^ritions on these and taking heavy oil of them. Our heavy bombers, in cluding the American units, have made almost nightly raids on Tobruk. and often on Benghazi, and it is reasonable to suppose that they have destroyed large quantities of materia! which the Axis fighting troops sorely need. In these wars the air has been
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