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Aviation History
1945
1945 - 0891.PDF
, T'?-"--..-.f'-ii-.y and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WORLD .• FOUNDED 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.1 Telegrams : Truditur, Sedist, London. COVENTRY! BIRMINGHAM. 2: 8 10 CORPORATION ST GUILDHALL BUILDINGS, 8-10, CORPORATION ST. NAVIGATION ST. Telegrams: Autocar, Coventry. Telegrams : Autopress, Birmingham. Telephone : Coventry 52 10. Telephone: Midland 29"71 (5 lines). Telephone : Waterloo 3333 (35 line*). MANCHESTER, 3: GLASGOW, C.2 : 260, DEANSGATE. 26B, RENFIELD ST. Telegrams : Iliffe, Manchester. Telegrams : Iliffe, Glasgow. Telephone: Blackfriars 4412. Telephone : Central 4857. No. 1898. Vol. XLVII. Registered at the G.P.O. as a Newspaper. May 10th, 1945 Thursdays. One Shilling. VICTORY THE day to which millions have been looking1forward has arrived. Hostilities in Europehave to all intents and purposes ceased. For over a month past there has been no enemy air action against Great Britain. Bomber Com- mand has beaten its sword (i.e. bombs) into the ploughshare of canisters of food, which it has been dropping among the starving people of Holland—" The best bombs I ever dropped," as one pilot remarked. This has been the first war in which air power has played a part equal in importance to that of land power and sea power. The main lessons which it has taught are that the secret of success is combined operations in which all three Services take their due share, and that it is well to have one Supreme Commander in each theatre who co-ordinates the work of all three. - Bombers when well handled have shown a tremendous power of destruction. Badly handled, as were those of the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain, they were almost futile. For a long period only the Russians were able to engage the German armies, but during that time the Air Forces of Britain and anon the United States steadily bombed German production centres. At first only comparatively small numbers were available, and they could only drop comparatively ligh^ bombs. But the numbers and carrying power of our bombers gradually increased, and so did the destructive power of the bombs, until at last crippling blows were struck at German war industries and strategic centres. Finally the destruction of German fighter factories, the denying to the enemy of supplies of oil, and the widespread paralysis of communications, made possible the invasion of Europe in the West. Then the heavy bombers showed their versatility by taking part in tactical operations. We British may plume ourselves on the de- velopment of Tactical Air Forces which worked with the Army. We started the war very much behind both the Germans and the Russians in that respect; but in Libya we learned how to develop and to use this new arm. We and the Americans ended up ahead of everybody in this novel way of beating the enemy with a minimum loss of life in our own armies. High, Fast and Heavy ALTHOUGH we have come to the end of thestrategic air war in Europe, the development ofthe very fast, high-flying bomber, carrying one super-size missile, must go on. In the 1914-18 war we—alone of the belligerents— developed the big bomb, but we neglected it in the years between the wars. Our pre-war heavy night bombers, Virginias and such-like, were designed to take nothing heavier than a number of 500 lb. bombs. This break in continuity of development must not occur again. A peep into the possibilities of the not very far distant future is intriguing. What is wanted is a small com- ponent of very large jet-propelled bombers able to operate in the region of 50,000ft., each carrying one 15- ton bomb. Bomb-aiming by instrument is already more accurate than the visual variety, and it should not be beyond the bounds of possibility to make it accurate for altitudes up to 50,000ft. Such aircraft would be extremely difficult to radio- locate and they would be entirely out of earshot. Even if they were located, what hopes of interception, or suc- cessful anti-aircraft gun defence, are there at such
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