EAGER TO GO INTO FULL ACTION

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 70, 15 December 1939, Page 10

EAGER TO GO INTO FULL ACTION

R.A.F. Men In France AIR CHIEF IMPRESSED IN VISIT (British Official Wireless.) (Received December 14, 7.5 p.m.) RUGBY, December 13. “The morale is excellent, and they are all waiting eagerly for any calls that may be made on them. I think there are few things they would like better than the-chance of a crack at the enemy.” This was the opinion the Chief of the British Air Staff, Sir Cyril Newall, expressed at the conclusion of a visit to the Royal Air Force at its war stations in France. “Although the men have endured a period of relative inactivity, good use of their waiting time has been made in training,” he said. “They have learned a lot of lessons through the successful contacts already made with the Germans.”

The eight-gun fighters have come fully up to expectations, and the bombers and reconnaissance aircraft, despite opposition, have most successfully completed all their missions in enemy country, Sir Cyril Newall continued. He paid a tribute to the -workmen, the manufacturers and the maintenance staff, who, he said, deserved all the credit that could be given. The aircrafts’ remarkable freedom from trouble, though exposed to all weathers, had justified all hopes. He expressed the gratitude of the Royal Air Force for the great help given by the French military authorities and also the civilians among whom the air force had billeted. The. villagers and the air force had taken to one another and a real spirit of comradeship had sprung up. After his visits to the advanced fighter squadrons, Sir Cyril Newall paid a courtesy visit to a French squadron.