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Aviation History
1945
1945 - 0423.PDF
and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE W6RLD •• FOUNDED 1909 Editor C. M. POULSEN Managing Editor G. GEOFFREY SMITH, M.B.E. War Correspondent JOHN YOXALL Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices: DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, S.E.I Telegrams : Truditur, Sediftt, London. COVENTRY : 8 -10, CORPORATION ST. Telegrams: Autocar, Coventry. Telephone : Coventry 5 210. Telephone : Waterloo 3331 (35 line*). BIRMINGHAM, 2: GUILDHALL BUILDINGS. NAVIGATION ST. Telegrams: Autopress, Birmingham. Telephone: Midland 2971 (5 lines). MANCHESTER, 3 : 260, DEANS GATE. Telegrams : lliffe, Manchester. Te/ephone : Blackfriars +412. GLASGOW, C.Z : 26B, RENFI ELD ST. Telegrams : lliffe, Glasgow. Telephone: Central 4857. No. 1889. Vol. XLVII. tered at the G.P.O. o$ a Newspaper. March 8th, 1945 We Outlook Thursdays. One Shilling. The' Salt of the Earth A S the drama in Europe draws slowly to its inevit- /~\ able end, and as operational casualties become a smaller and smaller percentage of the aircraft taking part in a raid, it is appropriate to acknowledge with grateful thanks the work done by the " old hands " of the Royal Air Force. By the "old hands" we mean the long-term, peacetime-trained men who served in the R.A.F., the Auxiliary Air Force or in the University Squadrons. Many of them who were flight-lieutenants or squadron- leaders when the war broke out are now in key opera- tional positions where their long experience is available to the war-trained aircrews who now form the majority "*«?'the various Commands. The parsimonious treatment with which the Royal Air Force was treated in the peace between the wars— for many years its total annual cost was much less than two days of our present war expenditure—only allowed for a comparatively small number of pilots to be trained really well, mainly with the defence of Britain in view. How fully this was done is well known to everyone, and it is to be hoped that no future body of men will ever again have to take the field with the dice so heavily loaded against them. Most of those who have been fortunate enough to sur- vive more than five years of intensive, air war are now doing equally important work as air staff officers, intel- ligence officers, wing commanders flying and operations, and squadron and station commanders. Quite a number still fly with the Pathfinders and Master Bombers. They have been, in fact, so far as the Royal Air Force is concerned, the salt of the earth. Among them are the Coninghams, Broadhursts, Boothmans, Cloustons and Cunninghams, who, by example and precept, have shouldered a very heavy share of the burden. Many a young lad is alive to-day because of their work. While, of course, it would be foolish to suggest that operational mistakes have never been made, it is un- doubtedly a fact that the pperatonal side of the Royal Air Force is handled with much more knowledge and imagination than is shown in any other comparable atir force. This fact undoubtedly has had a marked effect on the morale of the Force as a whole, which is as high to-day as it was in 1939. Parents, wives and sweet- hearts who have been unfortunate enough to lose some- body in the air war can be certain that lives are never wasted in the Royal Air Force, although it is necessary sometimes to see the big picture before this can be realised. The same credit must be accorded to the many of the "other ranks" who have carried the burden of ser- vicing an ever-increasing air force and who have through the years patiently imparted their knowledge and experi- ence to the new generation. All Tactical Bombing ^STRATEGICAL bombing was always admitted to be a J^ long-term policy. With the Allied armies oil German soil in both East and West, the time has passed for thinking about long-term policies. Probably there would be no time for them to take effect—at least every- one hopes that that will be so. What we want now are blows which have an immediate effect; we want to win battles, to destroy the forces of the enemy. If his stores depots are full of weapons and ammunition (we do not suppose that they still can be so, but if they are), the object now is to prevent those supplies from reaching his firing line. If they remain in the depots they will do no harm. His factories may still be turning out warlike goods—but in the factory they will be innocuous. Consequently, ever since D-day all bombing has
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