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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 0829.PDF
FLIGHT, 26 March 1954 373 THE AERONAUTICAL BOOKSHELF "Royal Air Force 1939-1945," Vol. l—"The Fight at Odds," by Denis Richards. Her Majesty's Stationery Office. Illustrated. Price 13s 6d. THE story of the U.S. Army Air Force's part in World War II, * over a period of 44 months, is being told in seven volumes, each containing some 800 pages and 100 illustrations. Inevitably, therefore, one doubted that the Royal Air Force's 71 months of war service could be covered adequately in three volumes, of which this first contains only 430 pages, 21 maps and diagrams, and 18 photographs. Forget the doubts. Denis Richards has done a grand job, and if the other two volumes are as good as this one there will be few complaints. There are hardly any of the irritating little errors of fact or spelling that one usually finds in even the best history. Even more important, there is not the slightest trace of inter-Service bickering. War-time "grouses," such as the Army's complaint that the R.A.F. let it down at Dunkirk, and the Air Staff's annoyance at having to devote so much of Bomber Command's effort to naval targets, are recorded and analysed fairly. Old fallacies like the rumour that Fighter Command was down to its last half-dozen reserve aircraft in the Battle of Britain are exposed. Satisfactory explanations are given of exaggerated claims of "kills" in that battle—which were far more wide of the mark in Luftwaffe reports—and no attempt is made to hide the unpleasant fact that, by September 1941, only one in ten of our bombers despatched to the Ruhr ever got within five miles of its target. The exploits of No. 263 Squadron's Gladiators from a frozen lake in Norway in April 1940 are dealt with a little sketchily; but Mr. Richards' account of the achievements of the Audax and Oxford "bombers" of No. 4 Flying Training School against Rashid Ali's troops in Iraq 13 months later is a joy to read. One particularly good story concerns the destruction of the enemy's communications by a pilot who flew his Audax through the tele phone wires. At one place, where the wires were more numerous than usual, he landed, climbed on the top wing and got busy with some shears, while his observer felled the poles with an axe! We are also introduced to some of the war's secret weapons, including parachute-and-cable and "Mutton," and "Collie's Battleship"—a lone Hurricane that must have seemed like a whole fighter wing to the Italians in North Africa. All sorts of other interesting facts come to light. Most readers will probably be surprised to learn that leaflet raids achieved great success against the Austro-Hungarian armies in 1918; that German radar was in effective use as early as December 1939; that Hector biplanes were thrown into the fight at Dunkirk; that an Anson played a big part in uncovering the beam-riding navigational methods used by German night bombers in 1940; and that the Hell Is of Kampjgruppe 100 were operating as highly efficient pathfinders for the main German bomber force as early as November 1940. But the greatest feature of this book is that Mr. Richards has been able to put every individual action, every campaign, into perspective against the background of the war as a whole. The result is made even more valuable by eleven appendices listing Members of the Air Council and Air Officers Commanding-in- Chief 1936-1941; R.A.F. Command Organization September 1939 and Januaryl941; first-line strength of the British, German and Italian Air Forces; specification data of British, German and Italian warplanes 1939-1941; R.A.F. Middle East Subordinate Commands 1940-41; the order of battle of Fighter Command, August 8th, 1940; and a very complete glossary of code-names and abbreviations. "Equipages a VAction" by Jaques Noetinger. Published by Presses Mondiales, 5 Rue des Moulins, Paris. Obtainable in England through Hachette, 127 Regent Street, London, W.l. Illustrated. Price 20s 6d. THERE is an increasing tendency now to relate die hard world * of machinery to the gentler values of imaginative thought, and to explore the personality of machinery. The more complicated and comprehensive becomes an aircraft (for example) the more it seems to assume a character of its own; and yet witiiout the hand of the pilot at the controls, it is no more than a complicated heap of metal propped up on the tarmac. It comes to life only through the human pilot who, by flying it, transforms it into an extension of his own personality. With the aid of the machine he creates and uses, man extends his power and rises towards those distant goals he has only imagined before. In the brilliant conceptions of machinery he is finding a new form of expression and a new power of achievement. Each new aircraft brings him closer to the realization of what has hitherto been a mere dream. And yet the man who first flies to another planet in a rocket will be a spiritual brother to Prometheus and Colombus, physically little different from them, spiritually imbued with the same spirit, and, despite progress, still a man striving to express what Dante described as the potential intellect which distinguishes him from the rest of creation. In these terms Pierre Clostermann, author of The Big Show, introduces Equipages a VAction, in which M. Noetinger shades-in the human background to the factual reporting of aeronautical events—and in aviation the human background to achievement is perhaps richer than in any other sphere of action. The life of die test pilot is beset with the most wayward tricks of fate, and the man who flies for the sake of flying is often at the mercy of unpredictable and intangible influences. M. Noetinger, himself a pilot, has spent a great deal of time with the men in the French aircraft industry who were responsible for the design, construc tion and flying of the remarkable series of aircraft which have appeared in France since the war, and in his book he sets down as a historical record the human background to these achievements. He tries in some way to bridge the gap between the factual report ing of, for example, a first flight and the reflective writing of a Saint-Exupery. He tries to capture the human and personal significance of mechanical achievement, and in so doing gives an account of the influence on the supposed exactitude of engineering of that element of chance which for want of a better term one calls fate. Equipages a I'Action is a series of stories of incidents and events in French aviation since the war; all of them M. Noetinger per sonally witnessed—the demonstration of the Fouga Gemeaux, die first flight of the Sipa 200 Minijet, the world's single-seat sail plane endurance record by M. Atger, and the testing of the Baroudeur, the Vautour and the Breguet 736 Deux Ponts. The book is the necessary historical record of the background behind the considerable achievements of the French aircraft industry, and M. Noetinger is, probably better than anyone, qualified to produce it. One hopes that in due course an English translation will appear. "Reach for the Sky," by Paul Brickhill. William Collins and Sons, Ltd., 14 St. James's Place, S.W.I. Illustrated. Price 16s. 'THIS is the story of G/C. Bader, who successfully ignored the -•- loss of both legs and became, during the Battle of Britain and afterwards, one of the great fighter leaders and air tacticians of the war-time air forces. But this is more than a modern success story. Bader's must rank among those titanic characters which from time to time make themselves felt because there is a driving force within them that will not be confined. Added to this is a constant challenge to the world, which, when the handicap of the loss of legs arose, led to a continual struggle for self- justification. With exceptional ability, determination and courage, Bader recovered the place in society which his ambitions demanded, and much more. Mr. Brickhill has produced a carefully studied and powerful account of this complex and fiery personality and placed it admirably in its historical context. The description of the Battle of Britain as it affected G/C. Bader, and as he in turn exerted his influence upon it, must rank as one of the finest accounts yet produced of those days. The difficult task of making a just assessment of so forceful a personality has been admirably achieved. "The Shape of the Aeroplane," by James Hay Stevens. Hutchinson and Co., Ltd., Hutchinson House, Stratford Place, London, W.l. Illustrated. Price 12s 6d. OF all the books that have been produced to coincide with the golden jubilee of powered flight, this is the most unusual and inspired. Mr. Stevens does not merely record in historical sequence the changes in aircraft shape; he shows that every change has been a logical outcome of flying's steady growth from a hazardous sport to an everyday method of transport in peace and a weapon of terrible power in war. Those who revel in historical data will find a number of small errors. Langley built his full-size aircraft in 1903, not 1896 (page 16). The Military Trials were in 1912, not 1911 (p. 23); the Sopwith "Schneider Baby" was/were two different aircraft (p. 37); the first truly streamlined R.A.F. aircraft was the Fairey Fox, not the Fury (p. 67); and so on. But this is not a history, and such data are incidental to the main story, which is told in a way that will satisfy the technician and yet be readily under stood by the layman. It is illustrated with 280 of Mr. Stevens' familiar, accurate line drawings of aircraft ranging from the Wright biplane and the Antoinette of 1909 to the Javelin, Sea Dart and Skyrocket, and including many rarities such as the Hoffman Arup flying wing and a bevy of half-forgotten Fokkers, all well in advance of their time. Easy-to-understand diagrams explain-
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