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Aviation History
1944
1944 - 0008.PDF
-2 FLIGHT JANUARY 6TH, 1944 The word "primary" has two meanings, implying cither the first place in importance or the first place in time. General Montgomery explained that you must win the battle of the air first before you undertake the battle of the ground. The General made no rash state ment as to which was the most important of all arms, for by this time everybody ought to know that all major arms appropriate to the campaign in question must be present in adequate strength. The General, likewise, did not say what he thought would be the ideal organisation. He expressed no opinion as to whether the Army chiefs ought to command the Air Forces which work with them; he merely stated the fact that the Army does not command the air. He insisted as strongly as possible that the two must work as one. "Army co-operation means noth ing," he said; "we do not understand it. When you are an entity you cannot co-operate." That the Army and the Air Force had become one in Africa was among the chief reasons for the Eighth Army's brilliant success. In the Tunisian campaign and afterwards General Eisen hower did command the air, but it was not because he was an Army Officer, but because he was Allied Cdm- mander-in-Chief with supreme powers over all the three Services as well as over all the Allies. The possibility lies ahead that in the invasion of Europe Air Chief Marshal Tedder may command Armies and Navies, again not because he is an Air Officer, but because he is Deputy Supreme Commander. Things being as they are, General Montgomery laid great stress on the need for '' complete mutual confidence and trust" between the Army and Air commanders. Here it is possible that the General laid his finger on the weak point in the present organisation. There have been bad-tempered Generals, and testy Air Marshals have not been unknown. If the two commanders did not get on well together, then General Montgomery's scheme would be in danger of failing. It has been reported that Rommel and Kesselring, for example, did not feel mutual trust and confidence whenfthey com manded the German Army and Luftwaffe respectively in Libya. There has always been mutua^ trust in the Middle East ever since the days when jjfeneral Wavell and Air Chief Marshal Lojgnaew sMrednthe same house in Cairo ; but that haj>pystate of affi^r/may not always CONTENTS The Outlook - War in the Air Here and There Looking Back Aircraft in Flying Attitudes Behind the Lines Invasion Air Command New Year Honours - Warming Up - The Case for the Flying Boat Gyro Flux-gate Compass - Correspondence Service Aviation _ - - - - - - - - - - - - 1 3 6 7 12, a and b 13 14 . 16 18 19 20 22 23 obtain. If it does not, then it is a good thing that one should be able, as Marshal Foch said when appointed Generalissimo, donner des ordres. However, that eventuality was presumably provided for when the Prime Minister laid it down that in the Middle East the Air commander must do his utmost to carry out the plan of the Army commander. That practically pro vides for the giving of orders. Sir Geoffrey de Havilland /i T last an obvious omission from previous Honours /~\ Lists has been put right, and a knighthood has been conferred on Geoffrey de Havilland. He is one of the pioneers of British flying, one of the notable few who designed and built his own machine in 1909, and afterwards taught himself to fly. Since then he has been concerned with the production of more classes and types of aircraft than most men—perhaps more than any one man. One's thoughts go back to his brilliant work at the Royal Aircraft Factory and the design of the B.E. machines; to the D.H.2 fighter, the D.H.4 arjd 9 bombers, and many more, in the last war; to the series, of civil aircraft produced in the inter-war years, and finally to the remarkable Mosquito of the present day. No one man has served his country more faithfully with his brains and enterprise, and no knighthood has ever been better earned. NIPPED IN THE BUD : A Japanese torpedo-bomber blown to pieces by the anti-aircraft guns of a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Marshall Islands. The torpedo can be seen breaking away from the machine.
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