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Aviation History
1943
1943 - 1014.PDF
408 FLIGHT APRIL 22ND, 1943 General if he would avoid arriving at erroneous conclu- sions about the General's views. It has several times been remarked in Flight's weekly commentary on the " War in the Air" that Gen. Mac- Arthur has invented the tactics of.defence by bomber. The General himself in his statement used.the striking epigram: "The first line of Australia's defence is our bomber line." The expressions which might give the erroneous idea that he depreciated sea power are : " The Japanese, except for our submarine activities, which are not to be discounted, have complete control of the sea lanes in the Western Pacific and of the outer approaches to Australia. The control of such sea lanes no longer depends solely, or even perhaps primarily, on naval power, but on air power operating from land bases held by ground troops or supported by naval power. . . . If we lose in the air, our naval forces cannot save us. . . . Japanese naval forces in great strength, though now beyond our bomber range, are within easy- striking distance of Australia . . . the battle for the Western Pacific will be won or lost by the proper appli- cation of the air and ground team." These words do seem at first sight to depreciate Allied naval power, while admitting a fear of Japanese sea power if the command of the air were lost. The last sentence in particular rather smacks of a dangerous generalisation ; but attention must be concentrated on the word "Western." Gea. MacArthur has not been entrusted .with the task of winning the coming Battle of the Pacific, but only with the holding of thu Japanese in the Western Pacific (South-Western would be more precise) and defending Australia until the United Nations have their hands free for a final vic- torious offensive against Japan. That offensive, we believe, will take the form of land-air in Burma and China and sea-air for the rest. The grand strategy must be to defeat the Japanese battle fleet, and then all the tentacles of the octopus must wither. CONTENTS' The Outlook War in the Air - New Mediterranean Air Command Here and There A New Empire Elementary Trainer "Air Force" .... Licensed Aircraft Engineer Behind the Lines .... Aircraft Characteristics Boost Surge - Coastal Command, W. Africa Topics of the Day - Russian Air Force Leaders In Parliament Correspondence .... Service Aviation - 407 409 411 412 413 416 417 418 418, a & b 419 420 422 424 425 427 428 Platitudes AMEETING of the Institute of Export was held inLondon last week with the intention, apparently,of waking up the Government and the public to the necessity of preparing for a large development of British air transport after the war. The intention was excellent, and most of the speakers voiced irreproach- able sentiments about the desirability of planning ahead, and so on—all of which has been said over and over again in the pages of Flight, and elsewhere. The result was what is colloquially called a " flop." Behind all the talking lies the fear that American companies will be able to monopolise most of the world's air routes after the war. They have designed various types of transport aircraft which, are suitable for the work, while Britain has unfortunately neglected that class. That state of affairs is not to be altered within any time which the war may conceivably last. For one thing, nobody in his senses would suggest that British firms should cease making heavy bombers in order to turn out passenger machines. American industry started turning out excellent transport aircraft years before the war, whereas if British firms started on that class now, it would be some four years before the pro- ducts would be in effective operation. VEI*Y FLEET FIGHTERS : A formation of Vought-Sikorsky F4U-1 Corsairs. The 2,000 h.p. Double Wasp engine puts the Corsair into the modern 400 m.p.h.-plus category. A number of them have already been in action1 against the Japanese.
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