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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 1674.PDF
PLIGHT, 31 August 1951 255 THE AERONAUTICAL BOOKSHELF Some Recent Publications Reviewed Mechanism of Victory "Calculated Risk" by General Mark Clark. George G.'Harrap and Co., Ltd., 182, High Holborn, London, W.C.I. Illustrated, price 22s. 6d. •"THE reader of a book at this price is entitled to expect something JL fat and satisfying, and he gets it in Calculated Risk. It is big in size—478 pages, 27 half-tone illustrations, 30 maps drawn by General Clark's daughter, plus a recommendation by General Eisenhower—and it has a great story to tell, of how a polyglot but united army of British, New Zealand, Indian, Polish, Brazilian, South African, Palestinian, Italian and American troops fought and destroyed 25 German divisions in some of the toughest, least publicized battles of the war. General Clark is immensely proud of the achievements of his Fifth Army and, later, 15th Army Group, which included the British Eighth Army; and he loses no opportunity of saying so. There is never any doubt of his sincerity, personal courage and ability, and one can forgive his oft-expressed delight when pro- motion and medals came his way, or to his colleagues. Proponents of air power will, however, not be enthusiastic over the General's views on air support. He pulls no punches in his criticism of the work of the Allied Air Forces at Anzio, and, although he records later that "The Air Force played a tremendous role in the victories that led to the liberation of Rome," he em- phasizes again and again that aircraft used for support of ground troops "are necessarily auxiliary weapons, as is the artillery, and they should come under the direct orders of the ground com- mander. That, in a sentence, is still my belief today." General Clark's beliefs are important, as he is now Chief of the U.S. Army Field Forces. Calculated Risk proves that his qualities and experience well fit him for his task. They include close contact with Russian leaders in the field and over the conference table, and his report of a post-war conversation with Marshal Konev explains in a nutshell present international chaos. After a typically abortive meeting he said to the Russian, "You've made ten de- mands at this Council meeting that we can't meet. But suppose I should say, 'AH right. We agree to all ten demands.' Then what would you do?" "Tomorrow," replied Konev, "I'd have ten new ones." Raising the Dust "Was I Really Necessary ?" By Richard Williams-Thompson. World's Press News Publishing Co., 20, Tudor Street, London, E.C.4. Price 105. 6d. "VfIKE" WILLIAMS-THOMPSON was chief information -"A officer to the Ministry of Supply from 1946 to 1949, and here is his story of one of those jobs which demand the qualities of a superman. A public relations officer in a government department in these curious times finds himself perpetually walking a very thin tight- rope with a great deal of empty air beneath it—and no net. At one and the same time, if he is to complete his performance, he must contrive to please the Service Chiefs, who are prone to con- sider Fleet Street as a high-speed espionage route to the country's potential enemies; Fleet Street itself, which in one sense is his principal reason for existence; and the more diehard type of Per- manent Civil Servant, who, wrapped cosily in a cocoon of red tape, is inclined to take a dim view of the direct methods of senior officers and keen newspapermen alike. Added to this, the P.R.O. must resist the constant temptation to become a personal publicity agent for his particular Minister, for politicians have an odd pro- pensity for becoming fallen idols overnight. That Williams-Thompson avoided all these pitfalls during his tenure of office is a tribute to his personality, which emerges very clearly in this book. As the field which he had to "relate" to the public was so vast—he himself calls the M.O.S. the "Ministry of Army Boots to Atoms"—the aviation side of the story is only one of many. Nevertheless, his chapter entitled "The Conflict of the Air" is a quite fascinating revelation (even to an aviation journalist) of what goes on behind the politico-industrial scene when im- portant new civil and military aircraft arrive, so to speak, in the maternity ward. His analysis of the unhappy affair of the Tudors is particularly Retailed and penetrating. He apportions the blame between (a) the Cabinet, "for its failure to grasp the fundamentals [coupled]v *ith the fact that the Minister of Supply was not strong enough to see that it did"; and (b) the Ministry of Supply for its failuret0 put the whole story before the public. "If it were too late to do anything for the Tudors," says williams-Thompson in his summing-up of this section, "it was certainly not too late to improve the Ministry's position generally with the Press." He then goes on to tell how he set about doing so. That he succeeded admirably we ourselves can bear witness; moreover, he simultaneously did a good deal to convince the Service side of the Air Ministry and M.O.S. that Fleet Street was not entirely peopled with secret agents. Writing of the regular Press conferences instituted soon afterwards, he says : "Much of the discussion was on secret and confidential matters, and the Press never once abused the confidence they were shown." Not everybody, even outside official circles, will agree with all the views expressed in this forthright little book; but its author will undoubtedly have stirred up some breezes in Whitehall corri- dors that badly needed airing. The Loser Speaks "We Defended Normandy," by Lt.-Gen. Hans Speidel. Herbert Jenkins, Ltd., 3, Duke of York Street, London, S.W.i. Illustrated. Price 12s. 6d. 'T'HIS book was published without the fanfares of trumpets that -•- have heralded so many personal histories of World War II; yet it is among the most interesting, because it is the first authorita- tive German criticism of Axis and Allied strategy and leadership in the war's decisive battles. Inevitably, Hitler is the villain of the piece, but, as General Sir Henry Pownall admits in his very fine foreword to the book, the Fuhrer was well cast for that role. His obstinate blindness, fostered by contempt for his commanders and sublime confidence in his own intuition, made ultimate defeat certain, although the German Army was still a great fighting machine in 1944. Had it been withdrawn from the Atlantic Wall, Channel Islands and Southern France and concentrated somewhere north of the Seine, to fight a great battle on ground of its own choosing, the outcome might well have been less catastrophic. But Hitler refused to listen to the advice of his generals and bis armies were destroyed piece- meal. Speidel was Chief of Staff of German Army Group B, which opposed the Allied D-day landings in Normandy—a position he retained for the first three critical months, under Rommel, von Kluge and, finally, Model. He leaves little doubt of the effects of Allied air power on the battle. The Luftwaffe apparently had only some 70 bombers and 90 fighters available on D-day; and they were pinned down so effectively that the German High Command ordered that "every aircraft in the sky is to be treated as an enemy machine." Speidel further comments on the "uncanny precision in co-operation between the Allied land forces and their air and naval support." The General's own record shows him to be a capable, humane soldier and a scholar—qualities which mark him as a possible future chief of a German defence contingent within the Western Union armed forces. This fact makes his book even more worthy of serious study. Heathrow Helpmate "The Airport Visitor." Penman Enterprises, Ltd., 59, Croham Road, South Croydon, Surrey. Illustrated. Price is. 6d.T HIS little book is intended as a companion and guide for all who part with their shillings to see aviation at close quarters from the public enclosures at British airports. It opens with a message from Sir John D'Albiac, commandant of London Airport, then gives details of London, Northolt, Squires Gate, Prestwick and Speke; lists of all British airfields; pictures and brief details of most types of airliner commonly seen in the United Kingdom; two pages on "Miss Airways 1950—the search for the perfect air- line girl"; caricatures by Wren of eight types of civil air liner; illustrated notes on airport-control equipment; a logbook giving the registration numbers, names and owners of 700 airliners serving this country; notes on various British and foreign airlines and pic- tures of the insignia of 12 of them. There is little doubt that The Airport Visitor will help the average member of the public to gain maximum pleasure and interest from a few hours at an airport; but future editions will benefit from more careful editing. For example, a misplaced line of type gives the Ambassador a 115ft cabin and the Argonaut an all-up weight of only 52,000 lb; the Convairliner is called variously "Convair Liner," "Convair 240," "Convairliner 240" and "Consolidated Convair 240," which must confuse the uninitiated; and the "British Airlines" section omits such companies as Airwork and Huntings from its brief list of charter firms. Nevertheless, the basic idea is excellent, and The Airport Visitor is good value for eighteen pence.
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