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Aviation History
1943
1943 - 0552.PDF
218 FLIGHT MARCH and of Coastal Command are designed to meet the requirements of their users. Lord Templemore answered that question, and we reproduce his reply elsewhere in this issue. But most of the debate wandered right away from the Motion and can merely have served to open old wounds. If their lordships were indeed voicing .the feeling of the Navy and the Royal Air Force, the debate might have been justified. But they were not. The Services do not desire a revival of the old controversy, and the ' will be grateful to Lord Templemore for his plea: "I do suggest with all respect to the gallant Admirals of the Fleet and to my noble friend, Lord Trenchard, that they call it a day and let these great Services get on with their jobs," The Out-moded Dive-bomberI N Parliament and elsewhere questions are still occa- sionally asked in a hopeful or despairing tone about when we may expect to receive the dive-bombers which we ordered from America in June, 1940. Some few, it is believed, have already arrived, and when the rest come to hand they will be accepted by the R.A.F. with modified gratitude.. Probably they will be used almost exclusive^ against enemy shipping, Which seems to be the one form of attack for which the dive-bomber is admittedly useful. It is still capable of upsetting the nerves of raw troops, but low-flying fighter-bombers can do that with equal effect, and the said troops usually say, after such an attack, that they have been dive- bombed. The fighter-bomber is a British invention, which the Germans have now copied. It does more damage at less cost in aircraft shot down. There have been two dive-bomber types in this war, the Ju 87 or Stuka, and the Blackburn Skua of the Fleet Air Arm. The latter was also a fighter, but not well suited for the role. As a dive-bomber it did one useful piece of work by sinking a German cruiser early in the war, but it is now completely obsolete. The Ju88 did not make a good dive-bomber. It is the Stuka J1187 which will go down to history as the dive-bomber. On land the Stuka worked most effectively with the German Panzers or ground troops in the campaigns of CONTENT S The Outlook - War in the A:r - Here and There - Specialised Training ... The Future of Air Commerce Aircraft Characteristics - Behind the Lines - - - China in the Air - Topics of the Day "•• • - Aircraft for the Navy - High-altitude Flight Correspondence - Service Aviation - - - - 217 219 222 223 226 228, a and b 229 230 234 235 236 240 241 Poland, Norway, France, Greece and Crete, in none of which it met adequate fighter opposition. At the end of the Greek campaign. Gen. Sir Thomas Blarney spoke emphatically of the little damage which it had done. Its moral effect was great, but its destructive power small. Whenever it has been met by fighters it has in- variably suffered heavily—unless its escort could pro- tect it. Ground gunners with steady nerves can also take severe toll of the clumsy divers. The most creditable per- formances of the Stukas have been the damaging of the two carriers, H.M.S. Illustrious and Formidable in the Mediterranean. But for those misfortunes to the Royal Navy, Admiral Sir Tom Philips might not have been left without air support off Malaya. The possession of dive-bombers would certainly help the R.A.F. and the F.A.A. in the Mediterranean, where one of the' most important tasks is to cut the sea link betweeen Sicily and Tunisia. The most effective weapon now at the disposal of our aircraft is the torpedo, but that weapon has its drawbacks. On the whole, it cannot be called an accurate weapon, though when it scores a hit the effect is most satisfactory. The dive-bomber can ensure great accuracy, and probably it calls for less skill and no more risk to the pilot than dropping a torpedo. ROUND THE PERIMETER TRACK : Liberator Ills of the U.S. Army Air Force in Britain taxying to the take-off point for daylight operations.
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