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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 1995.PDF
440 FLIGHT 44CIRRUS" and "PINNACLE" Integrated Air Defence Exercises over the Continent and Great Britain LAST Friday, September 28th, Exercise "Cirrus" gotunder way in Western Europe. It was purely an airexercise for the Allied air forces in Central Europe, but running concurrently for part of the time were French Army manoeuvres in Germany ("Jupiter"), and an R.A.F. Fighter Command exercise in England ("Pinnacle"). Although having essentially the same primary purpose, "Cirrus" had more than twice the scope of its forerunner, "Ombrelle," held five months ago. More than a thousand aircraft from eight nations participated in "Cirrus," and although bad weather imposed delays and some reorganiza- tion of schedules, progress in the efficient integration of the several national air forces involved must necessarily have been furthered. What can now be said with some confidence is that the basic system of air defence for Western Europe as a whole is established—it is essentially the same as that evolved and used by Great Britain—and that the chief problems of the immediate future are concerned with the quality and quantity of equipment and bases rather than the method of their use. It should not be thought for a moment that the air defence system of Western Europe is as yet a smoothly working machine—it is not: but the design is good, and the machine does work. It is simply a matter of practice making perfect, and exercises are the best way of obtaining practice. On the opening day of "Cirrus," low cloud, descending at times virtually to fog5 meant that many of the attacks scheduled for the morning had to be cancelled. Nevertheless, the operations in connection with "Jupiter" went compara- tively well. On Saturday, bad weather in the early morning again clamped down on every defending airfield except two, and the exercise was therefore extended by a couple of hours. Early in the afternoon a mass raid of R.A.F. Washingtons and Lincolns, together with U.S.A.F. B-29S, comprising in all 125 aircraft, struck at Paris, whilst medium raids were directed against Brussels, Charleroi, Antwerp, Augsburg, Karlsruhe and Le Havre. On Sunday, 120 R.A.F. and U.S.A.F. bombers converged on Brussels, attacking from the east, south and south-west at One of the five Sector Operations Centres in the air defence system of Western Europe: three French, one Belgian and one Dutch. between 20,000 and 30,000ft. Two strikes were also made against Paris, and there were other raids on Rotterdam, Coblenz, Cologne, Antwerp, Hanover, Rouen, Kaiserslauten and Le Havre. One of the more important aspects of "Cirrus" was the re-deployment of squadrons. On Saturday, an R.A.F. Meteor squadron moved bodily from Wahn, Germany, to Luxembourg, and a French squadron of Vampires moved from Coblenz, Germany, to Luxeil, France, whilst another Meteor squadron left Beauvechain, in Belgium, for a Dutch airfield, to be replaced by a French Meteor squadron. In all of these instances, local air lifts were employed for the total transfer. Exercise "Pinnacle" As "Cirrus" came to an end on the Continent "Pinnacle" carried on over Britain; in fact, for the first phases of "Pin- nacle," the two exercises were integrated. The schedules for "Pinnacle" have been so designed as to put to test the recommendations made after assessing the results of "Emperor," held in October, 1950 and "Foil," which took place in the summer of 1949. Thus this particular exercise is not a mere war game, with either Bomber Com- mand or Fighter Command winning, but is a non-continuous test divided into six phases, in which Fighter Command is seeking the answers to certain specific problems. Of these six phases no fewer than four are scheduled to take place during the week-ends in order that the utmost use can be made of Royal Auxiliary Air Force squadrons (all of which operate under Fighter Command) and the Royal Observer Corps. It will be remembered that the three- month call-up of the R.Aux.A.F. is now in its second period and, therefore, eleven of these squadrons are available for full-time operation during the exercise. "Pinnacle" is chiefly remarkable for the fact that, for the first time, jet-propelled night fighters—Vampire N.F.ios and Meteor N.F.I is—are in operation. On the attacking side some Canberras and B-45S are in use but, as in previous exercises, the majority of attacks by high-speed, high-altitude jet Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh P. Lloyd, A.O.C.-in-C. Bomber Command, is here seen looking at a C-119 Fairchild Packet at Wiesbaden.
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