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Aviation History
1946
1946 - 0581.PDF
MARCH 2IST, I946 FLIGHT 299 and the foundation of the United Nations organization. The subject of defence against attack by atomic bomb had the constant attention of the Air Council and its technical advisers. It was odious even to have to think of the in- expressible ghastly consequences of war to-day, but we had to think of them just so long as international anarchy persisted. The real safety of all peoples of all countries lay in the development by the United Nations organization of a world force capable, in the last resort, of enforcing the will of the United Nations on the THE AIR world. Undoubtedly, air forces were the most suitable instru- ( C O N T ment for this purpose, and the .A.F. must be prepared to make a worthy contribution as and when such a force developed. Dealing with the post-war pay and allowance codes, Mr. Strachey pointed out that these had now been fixed for all ranks. He added that he was now able to announce a very small reduction in the length of overseas tours of duty. Beginning April ist, the tour for single men would be reduced from 3J to 3 years, bringing them on to the same level as married men. The scheme would take until October ist to complete, and after that it was hoped to go further. Mr. Strachey said: '' We do assure men who are thinking of making the R.A.F. their career that the terribly long overseas tours which have been the rule during the war are not for one moment intended to be the rule in the post-war Air Force. Passing to the A.T.C., he said that he knew the sense of frustration which had sometimes been felt by the Corps, but a good deal had been decided, and he hoped very soon to give them their exact place in the future organization of the R.A.F. Provisionally, their strength had been fixed at 75,000, and this would enable all cadets of satisfactory standard to be accepted into the R.A.F. So far as the W.A.A.F. was concerned, it was the opinion of the Air Council that there were many Service jobs which could be done better by women than by men, and that an essential operational factor of the R.A.F. would be missing if there was no W.A.A.F. However, an announce- ment from all three Services on the future of the women's Services must be awaited. Mr. Strachey completed his speech with a general tribute to the R.A.F., emphasising the value to this country of the R.A.F.'s reputation and fame. "Let us not forget," he said, "what all the world remembers: that the Royal Air Force stood, not only between us and slavery, but between all peoples and slavery." The Debate During the debate which followed, many former R.A.F.officers added their views. The first speaker was Group Capt. George Ward, who went straight to the problem of Reserves.He expressed the hope that the figure of only ,£350,000 allotted to the auxiliaries and reserves was not an indication of theimportance attached by the Government to these forces, and suggested that, before the war, the dozen or so squadrons ofthe Auxiliary Air Force were the nation's best bargain. Their contribution to our air strength was made at a fraction ofthe cost of regular squadrons. A feature of the auxiliary squadrons was the excellence of their spirit and this squadronspirit should be fostered. The Auxiliary Air Force should form the basis of all our reserves and should have the VolunteerReserve as a second line reserve. He asked that the Reserve Command .should be set up againas soon as possible. Group Capt. Ward considered that although '' centralized maintenance '' had been economical inman-power, the divorce of maintenance from the squadron had been a main cause of deterioration in discipline because it hadremoved from the shoulders of the G.D. officer the bulk of his responsibilities. He suggested that the duties performed duringthe war by the Glider Pilot Regiment should be handed over to the R.A.F. Regiment.Group Capt Max Aitken, in a short and pointed speech, sked for an Empire Air Force. Planning and training should be on Empire basis as during the "war. He also insisted that this Empire force should be capable of powerful attack, for attack was the greatest deterrent to war. He suggested cutting the estimates and taking man-power from the Services, ifnecessary, for atom bomb development. Mr. Tom Driberg thought that many men serving overseaslacked adequate knowledge of demobilization facts. He asked for more amenities in such places as the Persian Gulf, andalso wanted to see the end of anomalies in conditions and pay which arose when R.A.I . and B.O.A.C. personnel workedtogether on the same station. Air Comdre. Harvey pleaded for a strong auxiliary Air Force, which should extend to the—————————— Colonies. He also recommended E Q T I U A T C C that A.A. Command should be takenO I I IV\ A I C O over by the R.A.F. Group Capt. I M I I F Pi \ Wilcock,,too, supported the pleas 1 i> U t U ) for the Reserve. He asked for a• reduction in the number of R.A.F. trades and recommended that main-tenance should be undertaken by civil aviation or in civilian factories. He wondered whether'the W.A.A.F. were necessaryin peacetime, and hoped that they would only be employed at home, if they were. 'Overseas we needed only a hard-hittingmobile force. Wing Cdr. Millington considered that Mr. Strachey hadreferred too casually to the work and the losses of Bomber Command, and suggested that there was a feeling amongstBomber Command personnel that Sir Arthur Harris and the Command had been affronted by the absence of his name fromthe New Year's Honours list. The Auxiliary Forces Mr. Quintiii Hogg wanted to know more about the size andshape of the organization of the Air Force and how it was to fit into the general plan of imperial defence; Wing Cdr.Robinson mentioned that the first rumblings of complaint from officers about their new rates of pay and allowances werebeginning to be heard; while Sqn. Ldr. Sir Gifford Fox seemed to think that lack of discipline in the R.A.F. was entirely thefault of station commanders. A number of other speakers took part in the debate, includ-ing Mr. Harold Macmillan, who, emphasizing that the esti- mates contained no sum for aircraft and stores, said that hewas not altogether happy about a scheme which relied on supply by another Department. He added that the Navy, whosince the time of Pepys had always had a pretty good idea how to travel permanently first class, had never agreed to anyinter-service arrangements except for such stores as were of no particular interest, such as gym shoes. Replying to the debate. Mr. btrachey assured Members thattheir enthusiasm for the auxiliary forces was shared, and that he would have liked to announce the setting up of a ReserveCommand. An announcement would be made in weeks rather than months, but it seemed that many well-informed membershad a good idea of how the auxiliary forces would fit into the post-war Air Force; the estimate of a score of auxiliarysquadrons might not be far wrong. He considered that the extension of the auxiliary squadron scheme to the Coloniesand Dominions was an excellent one well worth examination. Referring to the question of "centralized maintenance," heagreed that maintenance in the squadron had a great psycho- logical advantage and said that the reversion to this systemwas gradually being made. Mr. Strachey agreed that the administration of the Servicewas indeed a problem, but the employment of "Admin" officers would, to a great extent, cease, and administration,which was really leadership, would be carried out by the G.D. officer. R.A.F and B.O.A.C. anomalies in pay would besolved by the civil airlines being taken over by the appropriate civil corporations; in fact, the scheduled services of Transport^Command were already being taken over by civil operators and he hoped that the process would be virtually complete by theend of June. Referring to Wing Cdr. Millington's remarks about SirArthur Harris and Bomber Command, Mr. Strachey said that he had failed utterly in the main purpose of that part of hisspeech if he had not emphasized sufficiently the tremendous service to the country of that Command, and the sacrifices ithad made." With regard to the A.T.C., he did not think that the picturewas as gloomy as members made out, repeating that the target of 75,000 should make it possible to accept into the R.A.F.every cadet who reached a satisfactory standard. He emphasized that the decisions on the strength of the R.A.F.were provisional and for the immediate future, and that a long- term decision would be reserved until the situation became farclearer than it was to-day.
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