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Aviation History
1949
1949 - 1857.PDF
FLIGHT, JO November 1949 •G21 PHILATELIST'S AIR MAIL . . . to Naini Junction, on the first official flight, in February, 1911, could be bought for little more than £1. Pieces such as these would form a fitting in- troduction to an airmail collection, which could then be continued with more modern items. It is true that in a number of cases the modern flown covers are of rela- tively less interest than those of the early days, because in most instances the letters were dispatched by air solely with the object of being carried on tiie flights concerned, but there is no denying that the envelopes or cards do provide a record of aviation and airmail progress which in itself is attractive and romantic. Even to-day it is possible, by carefully watching postal announcements, to secure further records of notable flights, so that a collection can be extended almost indefinitely. Most of the earlier covers usually TRANSPORT, IWC, k I , y SaithFlight St*saford HouseBorsdc Street UmAon, S» B«, A cover carried in the first helicopter mail, initially flown in a Sikorsky S-51 from the Philadelphia Post Office roof in October, 1946, to the city airport. bear cachets denoting the nature of the flights, and some- times of a semi-pictorial character. Among the attractive cachets can be mentioned those used for the first Galway to London flight, the first regular transatlantic service inIO -39, the first Australia-to-England airmail flight in 1931, and some of the Graf Zeppelin flights. In addition special in 1934 several of the competitors carried mail, quite a large number of letters being flown by the K.L.M. entry, the Douglas DC-2 piloted by Parmentier and Moll. Some- times letters carried by aircraft which crash on land or sea are marked with evidence of the accident, and the col- lection of covers bearing witness to the occurrence is an-*^ o*^^ u. 1^.^ ^ru,j ^oyycurt, liigiiLo. in ctuuiiiun, special iecnon oi covers Deanng witness to tne occurrence is envelopes were issued, for example, by Imperial Airways interesting, if somewhat grim, sideline of air philately, for the initial flights between England and Australia, The days of romantic pioneer flights may be over, but England and Africa, and England and South Africa. an airmail collection can do much to recreate them in the During the McRobertson London to Melbourne air race mind of the collector. '.,'; BURMA STORY " Wings of the Phoenix—The Official Story of the Air War in Burma." (Prepared by the Air Ministry and the Central Office of Information, and published by H.M. Stationery Office. Price 5s.)T O date, the truest picture of the Burma air war has come in vignette form from writers of fiction, notably Nevil Shute and H. E. Bates, and from a very few observant com- batants like Bernard Fergusson; now the whole huge canvas has been drawn in masterly outline by an official historian, who is understood to be W/C. Leslie Kark. His name deserves at least the honour of being printed in a book which is a model of clarity, atmosphere, impartiality, and—to this reviewer at any rate—commendable accuracy. The illustra- tions, too, are not the hackneyed material that sometimes fills the pages of official histories, and they feature the " erk " on the job rather than the high-ranking officer in conference. It is, however, the author's balanced treatment which deserves the greatest praise. During the whole period covered —1941 to 1945—air power was manifested in an astonishing variety of ways by formations whose designation, direction, function and equipment were being constantly modified. Despite this, one feels that an American or Indian reader—or even a Japanese seeker after truth !—would consider that these 143 pages give his countrymen "honourable mention" where at is due. One newspaper critic, ex-R.N., has deplored the absence of the Fleet Air Arm from the book, and, since the record rightly extends well beyond the frontiers of Burma itself, the r61e of carrier-borne aircraft (admittedly a minor one) might well have been discussed. Those who served in the R.A.F., or U.S.A.A.F., however, will surely feel that literary justice has at last been done to their efforts, and they will gain a new appreciation of the gigantic problems of strategy that faced the planning staiis. The style of writing is flowing yet far from flowery, and • even the better-documented episodes (the Chindits' glider •" descent on "Broadway," the final air assault on Mandalay, 4 etc.) can be read as if for the first time.: Credit is given to many leaders, some of whose names are I- still prominent in the British aeronautical heirarchy—Coryton, •••'-•. Vincent, Williams, Mellersh among them—but these would be •'7: the first to insist on the truth that is so evident in this book: B 17 that the Burma war theatre called for, and extracted, excep-tional individual morale and initiative. (Incidentally, one suspects that some of the commanders are given titles and/orranks too early in the narrative.) A man-made and far trom glamorous "hero" stands outfrom these pages—the Dakota. The reader marvels again at the almost incredible volume and variety of work performedby this already veteran transport. A grand total of more than 550,000 tons of material lifted (by all supply squadrons) tellsonly part of the story. The anecdote which is printed of the British private who said: "They can keep their V.C.s andtheir M.C.s—give me the D.C.s! " may be apocryphal, but it is true to every Burma fighting man's affection towards, andtrust in, a vehicle that literally kept him alive and, employed with imagination, finally turned the scale of battle. G. D. H. L. BRITAIN'S NEW BOMBERST HE guests of honour at the third annual dinner of the AirPublic Relations Association were Sir Roy Dobson, Presi- dent of the S.B.A.C, and the Chief of the Air Staff, LordTedder, while Air Chief Marshal Sir Philip Joubert de la Ferte was in the chair. Sir Roy, proposing the toast of the Royal Air Force, exhortedthe Service to keep its powder dry: the powder in this instance was research and development. He twitted LordTedder on the subject of bombers, asking if the Royal Air Force intended to follow the lead given by the civil corporationsin acquiring American aircraft. Lord Tedder, replying, disclaimed all responsibility for thedecisions which led to our bomber position being what it is, but he thought those decisions were right for the time at whichthey were made. He reminded Sir Roy that we already had at least one modern bomber on the stocks and that another wasexpected from the Avro stable. Lord Tedder then went on to plead with his audience—which was composed almost entirely of newspaper men—not to put so much emphasis on the spectacular but to remember themany things happening each day, all over the world, which were being smoothly handled " by a few aircrew types."
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