AVIATION IN PEACE AND WAR

Evening Star, Issue 18256, 21 April 1923, Page 2

AVIATION IN PEACE AND WAR

LECTURE BY LIEUTENANT UMBERS. LORD JELLICOE PRESENT. At the Otago Officers’ Club last night the Governor-General was one of the listeners to a lecture by Flight-lieutenant C. A. Umbers on ‘Aviation in Peace and War.’ Several officers from the Chatham were also present, and there was a very largo attendance. Colonel Moir, the chairman, said it 'vas_ a great pleasure to welcome Lord Jellicoo in his first visit to the club. The club members had all served in His ! Majesty’s Forces, although some of them | were not able to take part in the Great j War. The club was proud to receive Lord l-T'dlicoe as 11 is Majesty’s representative, ! They were also proud to receive him for himself, for his services before and dur- | ing f,he late war had made the Empire ' appreciate him. | Lord Jellicoo, in replying, said that a great brotherhood existed between com-rades-in-arms, and the war made a bond which will never be sundered, and a comradeship which will never be forgotten. The Navv underwent no hardship compared with the hardships the Land Forces suffered in the war. During a war at sea ! there was very little difference from the | ordinary routine in peace time ns far as | experience was concerned until the opj ponent was sighted. In 1918 ho had the opportunity of visiting the front in i France, and he saw some of the work done, but he was not able to see actual fighting. He need hardly say that his experience added to the respect and estiraa--1 lion in which bo held the officers and men of the Army. He did not kn'ow of any men who earned a higher reputation than the men of the New Zealand Forces. In come quarters it was the fashion to decry British officers ami men: but their I reputation was also high. He could realise |to the full what was done by this doi minion. The number of men rait_ out from New Zealand was practically identical per cent, of population with_that of England, and was equal to, and in some cases greater than, that of other parts of , the Empire. What astonished those who j saw the New Zealand Forces was the disI eipline, not only in the face of the enemy, but also in rest camps. Lord Rawlinson, with whom Viscount .ToMicoe stopped pi France, had emphasised the sense of discipline which pervaded the New Zealand Forces, more particularly behind the lines. It was when (her.'’ was freedom ’from restraint that discipline showed itself. In every part of France, the New i Zealand Forres had built nn a event re--1 putation. They had behaved as thorough gentlemen wherever they were_ in France, .and. if everybody else, including nur op- , ponents, had acted similarly the feelings loft behind by the vyar would have been different. | Flight-lieutenant Umbers stated in lus I nooning remarks that in 1914 there were I 147 officers and 1,647 other ranks in the Roval dir Force, and in 1918 29,906 officers and 267.842 other ranks-a total of 714,748. In 1914 the Royal Air Force possessed 272 machines, and in 1918 27,171 machines. In the first ten months of the war the Roval Air Force’s output was 570 machines and 141 engines, and in the last, ten months nt the war 25,685 machines and 70.561 engines. In August, 1914, the Royal Riving Corps and the Roval Naval Air Service possessed 720 j motor vehicles, and in October. 1918,_ the Roval Air Force (the combined services) ! bad 26,260 vehicles. At (ho present time I Great Britain’s Air Force was not as | strong as it should be. Even a small j country like Belgium outnumbered Fnc--1 land as far ns machines and personnel j was concerned. Great Britain possessed five flying squadrons in 1914. and 211 sonadrons in 1918. In 1914 there were eight training sonadrons and 110 in 1918. Lieutenant Umbers then dealt with the various tvnes of flying machines in two during the early paid of the war. He showed photographs of women mechanics, and said that, the work dope hv the Women’s Air Force ‘lmuM not, forgot - | ten. The war had proved that the average woman could do skilled mechanical work after three months’ training, when thev cnrdd do work which had taken the average fitter three rears to learn. Dealing with the development of the aerocamera, the lecturer continued that in 1914 not one camera was used, erit'hnsinstic officers using their own cameras. They received no encouragement from the authorities till a pilot took a photograph, and, as a, result, a raid was successfully undertaken without one. casually to the British forces. The authorities then realised the value of aerial photography, and after some time a camera gun was made, which, in opera I inn. was very similar to the Lewis machine gun, and which contained a reel of film, portions of which became exposed when the trigger was pulled, taking nn instantaneous photograph. In 1911 the two inventors of the aero gun had offered to provide at their own expense two aeroplanes, and were willing to give a, display at Aldershot to nrnve the usefulness of aeroplanes in war, hut were not permitted to do so hv the authorities, whp held that aircraft would ; never he of anv use in war. j Colonel Chnlmer moved, and Lord ,Tellicoe seconded, a henrtv vote of thanks to the lecturer, and this was carried by henrtv applause. Supper was then handed round.