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Aviation History
1945
1945 - 1253.PDF
and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WORLD .• FOUNDED W09 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, COVENTRY : 8-10, CORPORATION ST. Telegrams: Autocar, Coventry. Telephone : Coventry 5210. Sedist, London. BIRMINGHAM, 2: GUILDHALL BUIiDINGS, NAVIGATION ST. Telegrams : Autopress, Birmingham. Telephone: Midland 2971 (5 lines). Telephone: Waterloo 3333 (35 lines). MANCHESTER, 3 : GLASGOW, C.Z : 260, DEANSGATE. 26B, RENFIELD ST. Telegrams : Iliffe, Manchester. Telegrams : Iliffe, Glasgow. Telephone: Blackfriars 4412. Telephone : Central 4857. No. 1905. Vol. XLVII. Registered at the G.P.O. as a Newspaper. June 28th, 1945 "We Outlook Thursdays, One Shilling. The Air-based CampaignA GOOD deal has already appeared in Flight about the part played by the air in the liberation of Burma ; but it is gratifying to hear the account given by General Sir Joseph Slim, K.C.B., of the reliance he placed on the help given to the 14th Army by the Royal Air Force. The R.A.F. began to get its reinforcements in 1943, and from then on the British were much superior to the Japanese in the air. "All trie plans I have made have always been based on that superiority," said General Slim, and he also insisted that the fighting did not consist of haphazard jungle melees, but that the campaign was all of a piece, and his-plans were adhered to throughout. He added that "the air was the answer to almost everything when righting on a front of 700 miles." Of course, this superiority was based on the work of the fighter squadrons. A General or an Air Marshal can do little with even superior strength in reconnaissance or transport aircraft unless the fighters deny the use of the air to enemy fighters and bombers and make it safe for his own machines. Our fighters ruled the air, and that made everything else possible. The superiority of fighters is now" an essential preliminary to all military operations, and Field Marshal Montgomery has made this point as strongly as General Slim has made it. bor the future all Staff Colleges will regard it as a basic % principle. , Having achieved this superiority, what a wonderful rise General Slim made of his superiority ! The work ot the air reconnaissance squadrons is too often taken tor granted in reports of military operations; but it is vital to success. In jungle fighting it is particularly difficult for the reconnoitring machines to bring in complete reports of every move of the enemy; but there can be no doubt that General Slim always knew with sufficient accuracy what the enemy was doing. . Then came the chance of the transport aircraft. Their* work in the late Burma campaign was unprecedented, and was marvellous to those who had not appreciated the potentialities. Whole divisions were moved by air, together with their equipment, and armies were enabled to rush forward at high speed through a country where ordinary means of transport were at a minimum, simply because they could depend on air supply. The surprise to the Japanese General Staff was overwhelming. Nothing like it had ever been foreseen, and it, too, will go down to history as a subject for Staff Colleges to study and digest. Per Avro ad AstraO NE of the first British aircraft firms to produce an aircraft type specifically for commercial aviation after the first world war was A. V. Roe and Co., Ltd. The first firm to have a corresponding type flying after the termination of this European war is A. V. Roe and Co., Ltd. This is no mere coincidence. It is no reflection on other British designers to say that Mr. Roy Chadwick and his team have a particular flair for designing, with ease of production in mind, nor is the fact that the Mr. R. H. Dobson (still " Dobbie" to his innumerable friends) who was in charge of production after World War I is still at the helm, as Sir Roy Dobson, after this war, unconnected with the structural simplicity that has enabled a totally new type to be, got into the air so quickly. Between them the two Avro Roys always seem to produce something which blends aerodynamic efficiency with manufacturing common sense. By way of showing how far we have come during the
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