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Aviation History
1944
1944 - 1674.PDF
166 FLIGHT AUGUST 17TH, i944 over a journey which would normally take only a few hours. In the six weeks before D-Day the enemy had natur ally been anxious to learn our plans. He attempted 129 reconnaissance flights over our ports, but only 11 of them got through. Consequently his information was extremely scrappy just at a time when full information would have been worth anything to him. And, we may add, the Germans have shown undoubted signs of being quite bewildered by the speed with which the American armour has dashed across Brittany, and then turned eastwards in the direction of Paris. Again, air reconnaissance has failed them. Looking to the future, this summary by Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory is full of comfort to an island kingdom like Great Britain, Within the last four years we British have known what it h to live in fear of an invasion. That fear was dispelled by the victory of our fighters (and A.A. guns) over the enemy's bombers. It follows that if we can always maintain a force of fighter air craft which can master enemy bombers and enemy reconnaissance aii craft, an invasion of Great Britain "will not be on." The Airborne Army T HE latest new formation, namely, the Airborne Army, as it is certain to be generally called, has been formed by General Eisenhower as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces of Liberation. No other authority could have formed it, for it includes both British and American units. It is entirely outside the jurisdiction of both the War Office and the Air Ministry. The general public has been given only the most meagre accounts of the part played by airborne troops in the invasion of Normandy. It was, therefore, some thing of an eye-onener to hear that General Eisenhower has admitted thatjy. was because of his great faith in them tEat he v£s/jble to give the "Go" signal on d whether the operation in France lace without the services of airborne address to some of the men last week rough their effective employment we this^war far more quickly than we could em. CONTENTS The Outlook - - - War in the Air For Photographic Recce. - Here and There Avro York - - - V.C. for Canadian Pilot Behind the Lines Beaufighter Strikes - Cadets Build a Cadet Aircraft in Flying Attitudes Correspondence Service Aviation . - - - - • - . - - - - - 165 167 172 174 176 180 181 182 184 185 186 - 187 D-Day, .and co "warriors he adi should wkho* These were very emphatic words, and they show that the science and art of using airborne soldiers has advanced a long way since the first gallant, but not highly successful, landings in Calabria by some Briti5|f parachutists a couple of years or so ago. • . A natural corollary to such words by our Supreme Commander must be that when the present war is over a strong airborne contingent must form part of the regular British forces. The question then arises, shall it be under the War Office or under the Air Ministry ? The First Airborne Division in the British forces was raised and trained by General Browning and Air Com modore Sir Norman Nigel, working in unison. In the future will the fighting men belong to the R.A.F. Regiment and the whole force be administered by the Air Ministry, or will the troops be s6ldiers of the Army carried in aircraft belonging to the War Office ? Airborne troops are almost certainly the best instru ment for restraining would-be aggressor nations after the Armies of Occupation have been withdrawn, and their organisation is therefore a matter of great moment. We should like to suggest that they should be directly under the Ministry of Defence, rather than under either the War Office or the Air Ministry. After all, the modern tendency is to unify our forces rather than to split them up, and the Airborne Army seems the obvious first step towards unification. JAP'S EYE VIEW : The latest B-29, Superfortress ; photographs showing the open doors of the two capacious bomb bays.
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