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Aviation History
1945
1945 - 0445.PDF
MARCH 8TH, 1945 FLIGHT *57 Combined Operations Room : Fighting the E-boat Battle Tour of Inspection in Belgium VISITING a Coastal Command Group H.Q. last week,I happened to have the good fortune to be there onthe occasion of a big E-boat battle which went on most of the night in brilliant moonlight. The operations room of this group is some 100ft. below ground level and entrance is made by a long sloping pas- sage down which it is difficult not to go at a jog trot. Any- one who has -visited the king's chamber in the Great Pyramid of Cheops will understand exactly. The only difference is that when one comes out of the Pyramid a native guide puts his hand on one's —^f>9Sterior and pushes, whereas one sur- faces from this operations room under one's own steam. Down below, a number of tortuous passages with cabin-like offices gives the appearance of being in the bowels of a warship, and one instinctively expects to hear the bosun's whistle come over the loud speaker. This effect is enhanced by the fact that the opera- tions room is shared by the Royal Navy. On the wall map all the patrols flown by this fields, convoys and warships. Although this is so far below ground, a clearer and more complete picture can be seen here of any battle than can be seen even by aircraft flying over the area. In glass-fronted, sound-proofed rooms, fac ing the maps, the naval, air and air/sea rescue controllers sit at their telephones. On the walls are lists of aifcraft carrying out the patrols, with their time on and off duty. Other lists show aircraft group of Coastal Command are in- dicated by lines of tape, while on the table map "iV'ens indicate *ith chalk and models the swept channels, mine- Air Vice - Marsha!F. L. Hopps, A.O.C. a group in CoastalCommand, photo- graphed in theaircraft on his way to inspect the CoastalCommand wing on the Continent.
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