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Aviation History
1943
1943 - 1623.PDF
ana AIRCRAFT ENGINEER FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WORLD •• FOUNDED WOQ 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.I Telegrams : Truditur, Seditt, London. Telephone: Waterloo '3333 (IS lines). COVENTRY : BIRMINGHAM, 2 : MANCHESTER, 3 : GLASGOW, C.2 : 8-10, CORPORATION ST. N^' m^ TT^N'^T' 260' DEANSGATE- 26B- RENFIELD ST. Telegrams : Autocar, Coventry. Telegrams : Autopress, Birmingham. Telegrams : Iliffe, Manchester. Telegrams : Iliffe, Glasgow. Telephone: Coventry 5210. Telephone: Midland 297 1 (5 lines). Telephone: Blaekfriars 4412. Telephone: Central 4857. No. 1800. Vol. XLIII. Registered at the G.P.O. as a Newspaper. June 24th, 1943. We Outlook Thursdays, One Shilling Tactical Air Forces A FEW da 's ago it was announced that two newTactical Air Forces had come into being in theUnited Kingdom, one having been formed by the United States Army 8th Air Force and the other by the Royal Air Force. Both have been modelled on the force of the same name commanded by Air Marshal Sir Arthur Coningham in North-West Africa. Air support for a British Expeditionary Force has always been recognised as one of the many duties of the Royal Air Force. In the inter-war years this duty was performed by providing a certain number of so-called army co-operation squadrons, equipped and traiaed solely for tactical reconnaissance up to about fifty miles behind the enemy's front line and for artillery observa- tion. Their duties were studied and taught at a School of Army Co-operation. Within the limited sphere of work contemplated, these squadrons were very highly trained, and the pilots in them were extremely com- petent. When the Army held manoeuvres a certain number of fighter and light bomber squadrons from the Command Air Defence of Great Britain were lent to the Army for the occasion. It did not seem adequate, but the War Office showed no perturbation. The shortcomings of this arrangement were shown up during the campaign in France and the Low Countries, and it was obvious that something more adequate would have to be devised. The result was the formation in December, 1040, of the R.A.F. Army Co-operation Command, on the staff of which Army officers served side by side with R.A.F. officers. Among other activi- ties the two Services combined cordially in developing airborne divisions. The other activities remained a close secret, if we except the use of Mustang fighters to shoot up trains in northern France, which was obviously a means of '' blooding'' the squadrons and had nothing to do with real co-operation. The term '' army co-operation'' has become mis- leading, because it was originally applied to the tactical reconnaissance squadrons whose duties covered only a very small part of what the term ought to imply. It cer- tainly ought to mean every form of help which aircraft • can give to an Army in the field, in actually helping the ground troops to win battles. Doubtless it was the original intention that the A.A. Command should work to that end. The Command existed only in the United Kingdom, and the only way of judging its work was to study what happened in Africa, where it might be expected that the theories and practice evolved by the Command would be put into operation. The Middle East R.A.F. Command always received generous com- pliments from the Army of the Nile, but for a long time it did not succeed in -contributing to a land victor ' on a decisive scale. There may have been many reasons for that, such as shortage of certain classes of aircraft, shortage on the Army's part of the right sort of tanks, and perhaps ideas which were not quite up to date. However, from the Battle of Alamein onwards a change came over the scene, and it was clear that the Air Forces and the Army were working in much closer unison. Air Marshal Coningham's Western Desert Air Force obviously opened a new chapter in the history of air support for ground troops, and the new move- ment was developed and expanded when the same Aj.r Marshal was given command of the Allied Tactical Air Force in Tunisia. Its operations have been acclaimed as a model, and in consequence the British and American organisations in the United Kingdom have been moulded to follow that model closely. The Army Co-operation Command vanishes (and one might almost add the time- honoured words) unwept, unhonoured and unsung.
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