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Aviation History
1943
1943 - 1285.PDF
AIRCRAFT ENGINEER FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WORLD •> FOUNDED 1909 Editor C. M. POULSEN Managing Editor G. GEOFFREY SMITH, M.B.e. Chief Photographer JOHN YOXALL Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices: DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, S.E.1 Telegrams : Truditur, Sedist, London. COVENTRY : 8-10, CORPORATION ST. BIRMINGHAM, 2 : GUILDHALL BUILDINGS, Telegrams : Autocar, Coventry. Te/egroL '• Auwpres's, ^irLng^am'. Telephone: Coventry 5210. Telephone: Midland 2971 (5 lines). Telephone: Waterloo 3333 (35 lines). MANCHESTER, 3 : GLASGOW, C.2 : 260, DEANSGATE. 26B, RENFIELD ST. Telegrams : Iliffe, Manchester. Telegrams : Iliffe, Glasgow. Telephone : Blackfriars 4412. Telephone: Central 4857. No. 1795. Vol. XLIII. Registered at the G.P.O. as a Newspaper. May 20th, 1943. cJAe Outlook Thursdays, One Shilling. The Prime Minister's PraiseT HE Royal Air Force and its Allied comrades will certainly feel very gratified at the message sent to them by the Prime Minister through Sir Arthur Tedder. "It is certain," wrote Mr. Churchill, "the victories in Tunisia would never have been gained with- out the splendid exertion of the Allied Air Force under your skilful and comprehending direction." It is only fair to reflect that likewise the victories would never have been won without the exertion of every other arm, and not least that of the-supply ser- vices. But it is certainly true" that the air arm has played a particularly useful part in most stages of the African campaigns. Perhaps the word in the Prime Minister's message on which most stress ought to be laid is " comprehending." Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder is in a unique and unprecedented position. He is the Air Officer Com- manding-in-Chief all the Allied Air Forces in the Mediter- ranean, but, as was recently explained in Flight, an officer commanding-in-chief is not the same as a Commander-in-Chief. Sir Arthur Tedder owes allegiance to no fewer than three Commanders-in-Chief, namely, those of North-west Africa (General Eisenhower), the Middle East (Sir Maitland Wilson), Iraq and Persia (Sir H. Pownall), and also to the G.O.C., Levant (Lt. Gen. Holmes). Fortunately not one of the three last has interfered with him, and one imagines that General Eisenhow - • can only have given broad indications of his require- ments. Sir Arthur Tedder has been left free to manipu- late the air contingents in the four Commands and the squadrons in Malta as has seemed best to him. He has varied his blows, sometimes striking out right and left, d sometimes concentrating, much as a chess player uses his bishops, knights and castles. It has been a masterly piece of work, and singles out Sir Arthur Tedder as perhaps the first really great air commander n his- tory. When the Italians shot down the bomber which was taking his predecessor out to the Middle East, they little thought what a tartar they were bringing upon themselves and the Germans in the Mediterranean. The last sentence of Mr. Churchill's message is r.lso well worth noting. In speaking of " the united, efficient and individual devotion to duty which enabled so amaz- ing a number of sorties to be made each day," he obviously paid a tribute to the ground crews as well as to the air crews, and for those devoted aircraftmen who kept airframes and engines in order no praise could be too high. Civil AviationT HAT tabling motions in Parliament and "getting a move on " in the Government are not the same thing was shown in both Houses last week, when the Lords discussed British Overseas Airways Corporation and the House of Commons debated cargo- carrying aircraft. On the whole, the Lords debate was the more useful of the two, dealing as it did with the broad general policy of post-war civil aviation. In the House of Commons Major Lyons asked about progress with production of cargo-carrying aircraft, and made a tactical error in his choice of phrase, since it gave Sir Stafford Cripps an opportunity, which he was not slow to take, for emulating Joad in the B.B.C. Brains Trust by saying it all depended upon what one meant by cargo- carrying planes. " It is a little difficult to know exactly what are referred to as cargo-carrying planes," Sir Stafford said. "All planes are cargo-carrying; it only depends on what is the cargo." That, we submit, B
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