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Aviation History
1945
1945 - 1002.PDF
55© FLIGHT MAY 24TH, 1945 COMBAT CARGO TASK FORCE obvious that the Japanese were headed for disaster. By June 22nd, the Kohkna Road, £rom the Railway to Imphal,' was reopened by a relieving Force o. 33 Corps, and by the end of the month the weight had been lifted from Troop- Carrier Commands shoulders. It had been touch and go—how nearly so only the full history of the operation can recount—but it was obvious to all who were following this From that the new strategy of air-supplying an Army could and would work. It has always seemed to me to be odd that the Japanese Higher Command did not realise this from the word "go." The writing was on the wall from the first Wiugate expedi- tion, and was put up in particularly large letters in Arakan, Yet only a matter of weeks later Jap ground forces were embarking upon an operation of encirclement when they had practically no air power, and when they knew we were in a position to maintain our garrisons "from the air. The defeat they sustained as a result is one from which they never recovered in Burma, and it is^true to say that the Battle for Rangoon was really wo/i'on the Imphal Plain. ft is interesting to note that during the Imphal operation Troop-Carrier Command was used not only to bring supplies to Imphal but also reinforcement troops. One Indian Infantry Division was flown up complete from Arakan to Imphal and another to 33 Corps. In addition the 2nd British Division was flown to 33 Corps from the far side of India where it was training. After Imphal, Troop-Carrier Command had something of a breather. True, it still had commitments—notably the air supply over the monsoon-covered mountains to the 5th Indian Division. This Division was chasing the Japs back to the Chindwin, giving them no rest nor time to regroup. 1 Completely dependent on the Dakotas (the Tiddim Road *• was "out'' for the monsoon), the 5th Division laid another foundation stone for the final Burma victory. It was largely by their efforts that the good weather fou4ld the 14th Army on the edge of the Burma plain—ready for this final kill. The supplying of the 5th Indian Division did not, how-* ever, place undue strain on Troop-Carrier Command, and its staff, during the monsoon, was able to study the hard-won lesson of Imphal. A large number of problems to do with the air supply companies had to be faced. These com- panies handled, from April.. 18th to June 30th inclusive, 18,000 British tons of supplies for Imphal alone, and the experience they gained in handling this called for some revision of the system For instance, it had been found that the military stcck-holding method of keeping the sup- plies of any particular commodity at one airfield only could, not work, as most Dakota loads had to be " mixed " and this old/method involved the flying of aircraft from airfield to airfield to collect the ingredients of a varied load. Mixed depots, therefore, had to become an order of the day. The^* movements of the Dakotas also had to be planned so as to ' get the maximum and most economical use of over-taxed resources. For instance, an aircraft based near Silchar might open the day by dropping supplies in Arakan. On its return journey northwards it might land on the Arakan coast to pick up a load for delivery to Imphal, and then complete a further two or three sorties between Imphal, and perhaps to other airfields before returning to b'ase. A lot of this fully needed sorting-out in the planning of future operations, and the difficulties of the air supply com- panies which arose from their buffer position between two services had to be realised and put rig^fT (To be continued next week.) The Havana Meeting World Organisation of Air Transport Operators THE international conference of air operators in Havanamarks the beginning of a new chapter in the co-opera-tion of those engaged in air 'transport. The progress ofthis conference has been previously reported in Flight but, with the leturn of the British delegation it is now possible to addsome more details to the picture. Major J. B McCrindle, deputy director general, B.O.A.C,who is the acting chairman of the Executive Committee and whose initiative and efforts during last winter's Chicago con-ference are in no small measure responsible for bringing the operators together, told Flight that the result of the Havanameeting is viewed with general satisfaction. As previously reported,, the conference established an inter-national organisation of air transport operators, I.A.T.A., replacing any previous associations formed on these lines.While regional independent organisations such as that of the British Commonwealth or the A.T.A. of America, will con-tinue to exist and deal with their own problems, it is for the first time that American operators in any numericalstrength have joined their European olleagues. Not only in this respect is the framework of the new organisation widerthan its pre-war predecessor; for while the pre-war I.A.T.A. was limited to international air traffic operators, the new set-upembraces domestic operators as well. Thus, for the first time the latter will have an opportunity of studying their mutualproblems and airing theii views on an international platform. For this purpose membership of the 1.A.T.A. is divided intoactive members (operators of scheduled international services) and associated members (domestic operators). The latter have neither voting rights nor representationon the Executive but are eligible to sit on the different com- mittees and participate in assembly meetings except thosereserved for exclusive problems of international operators. The following operators are listed as active members: — A.B. Aero Transport (A.B.A.); Aer Lingus Teoranla (IrishAir Lines); American Export Airlines, Inc. ; American Air Lines, Inc. ; British Overseas Airways Corporation; BritishWest Indian Airways; Braniff Airways, Inc.; CeskosJovenska Letecka Spolecnost; Ceskoslovenska Statni Aerolinie; ChinaNational Aviation Corporation; Cia. Mexicana de Aviacion, S.A.; Colonial Airlines, Inc.; Compania Aerea de Transportes Iberia; Det Danske LuftfaCrtselskab; Det Norske Luftfartsel-skap (D.N.L.); Empresa de Viacao Aerea Rio Grandense. S.A. ; Expreso Aereo Interamericano, S.A.; Indian NationalAirways; K.L.M. Royal Dutch Airlines; K.N.I.L.M. Royal Netherlands Indies Airways; Norges Luftfartstyre (RoyalNorwegian Air Transport); North East Airlines, Incorporated; North West Airlines, Inc.; Pan-American Airways, Inc.;Pan American-Grace Airways, Inc. ; Panair do Brazil, S.A.; Polish Airlines " L.O.T." ; Qantas Empire Airways; Reseauties Lignes Airiennes Francaises (Air France); Services Aereos Cruzeiro do Sul; SABENA of Belgium; SWISSAIR;SILA, Swedish Inter-Continental Airlines; TACA, S.A.; Tasman Empire Airways; Trans-Canada Airlines; Transcon-tinental and Western Air, Inc. j. Transportes Aereos Centra- Americanos ; United Airlines ; Western Airlines ; Wrightways.' While the strict demarcation between the rights of activeand associate members seems somewhat harsh, most com- mendable is the rule governing the distribution of voting,giving each active member one vote. This is a practical dis- play of the willingness of the big concerns to co-operate withtheir colleagues without trying to dominate the organisation. To maintain a closer contact between operators, regionalcentres are to be established in each continent. An executive committee of 13 members is in charge of theaffairs of the organisation. The present members are: — Major |. R. McCrindle, B.O.A.C. (Acting Chairman); M.Rene Briend, Air France; Mr. A. F. T. Cambridge, Indian National Airways; Mr. John C. Cooper, Vice-President, PanAmerican Airways; Mr. J. B. Ribeiro Dantas, Empresa tie Viacao Aerea Rio Grandense, S.A. ; Mr. W. Hudson Fysh,Managing Director, Qantas Empire Airways, Ltd.; Mr. Per A. Norlin, A.B. Aerotranspcrt; Mr. A. Plesman, K.L.M.;Mr. John E. Slater, American Export Airlines. It is expected to fill the four vacant seats on the Executiveat the next general meeting in October in Montreal. The headquarters of the I.A.T.A. are at present in Mon-treal to coincide with the seat of the governmental Interim Organisation set up at Chicago. Committees set up to study themost pressing problems and to assist in formulating internation- ally accepted standards comprise the traffic advisory, the legal,the finance, the technical and the postal committee.
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