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Aviation History
1943
1943 - 1883.PDF
AIRCRAFT ENGINEER FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WBRLD •• FOUNDED 1909 Editor C. M. POU^SEN 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 : BIRMINGHAM. 2 : 8-10 CORPORATION ST GUILDHALt BUILDINGS, 0 IU, <_VKt-UK/uiUN SI. NAVIGATION ST. Telegrams: Autocar. Coventry. Telegrams: Autopress, Birmingham. Telephone: Coventry 52 10. Telephone: Midland 297 1 (5 lines). Telephone: Waterloo 3333 (35 lines). MANCHESTER, 3 : GLASGOW, C2 t 260, DEANSGATE 26B, RENFIELDST. Telegrams: tliffe, Manchester. Telegrams : Iliffe, Glasgow. Telephone : Blackfrlars -4412. Telephone : Central 4657. No. 1805. Vol. XLFV. Registered at the G.P.O. as a Newspaper. July 29th, 1943. "The Outlook Thursdays, One Shilling. Airborne Troops in SicilyT HE Allied landing in Sicily was the greatest experi- ment in combined operations as yet attempted. The practice raids on Dieppe and elsewhere had . provided some experience, and the wonderfully success- ful landing in North-West Africa was of the nature of a dress rehearsal. All three provided training for the staffs in organising this most complex of all warlike operations. Whereas the combined work of Navy, transports, Army and air cover could all be based on a certain degree of experience, the employment of airborne troops in Sicily was still almost a novelty to the British and American leaders. Parachute troops had been used by the British in the Tunisian campaign with varying degrees of success, but glider-borne troops had not been used by us before in actual warfare. Both types of airborne contingents were used by British and Americans : in the invasion of Sicily, and so useful were they that General Montgomery has said that their work saved the British section of the invaders seven days. The Americans, whose.arms were somewhat different from those of the British, held up an enemy tank attack and prevented it from reaching the beaches. The experiment, therefore, can be put down as a striking success. Nevertheless, it can hardly be supposed that an experi- ment based on so little practical experience was ^o perfect in every respect as future operations may be expected to be. Undoubtedly lessons will have been learnt, and when they have been studied and digested the conclusions will be applied in other invasions which are still to come. Parachute troops and glider-borne troops have dif- ferent characteristics, and the conditions of each opera- tion have to be studied before the decision is taken to use either or both. Gliders require reasonably level ground on which to land, whereas parachute troops are less particular. On the other hand, the latter are apt to be scattered during the drop, and they have to spend some time in extracting equipment from canisters and then forming up before they become a complete fighting unit. The glider men come down as a small, compact unit, and bring all the necessary weapons and equip- ment with them. These pros^and cons have to be considered in each particular case, having regard to the job to be done, the nature of the country, and the dispositions of the enemy. Sicily has provided the first fyll-scale experi- ment, and if it is found that mistakes were made, at least they did not result in anything but very light casualties to the warriors from the air. The Bombing of RomeI T is always useful to try to forecast the line which enemy propaganda will take, and it would not be at all surprising if the Italians were to recall the British threat that if Athens and Cairo were bombed reprisals would at once be made on Rome. They might argue that as Cairo had not been bombed there was a moral obligation on the United Nations not to bomb any part of Rome. As a matter of fact, some bombs were dropped on the environs of Cairo, and when the Prime Minister was asked in the House whether that would auto- matically bring our threat into operation, he replied that Cairo had not been bombed, but only some military targets on the outskirts. That is also what has happened in Italy. — Rome, the ancient capital of the Roman Empire ; Rome, the centre of the Catholic forrft of Christianity; Rome, the shrine of those historical monuments which are (as the Allied
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