ROYAL AIR FORCE

Evening Star, Issue 24047, 20 November 1941, Page 10

ROYAL AIR FORCE

CRITIC ANSWERER PROPAGANDA IMPLIED NEW YORK, Nov. 18. The United Press aviation critic, Major Alexander Deserversky, replying to Rear-Admiral Harry Yarnell’s attack on the R.A.F., said Rear-Admiral Yarncll’s data was distorted and his conclusions were false. There were occasions, he said,, when the R.A.F. had not followed naval information concerning submarines, but the reason was that there were more targets and tasks than the R.A.F. could handle. The British Navy was fully and quickly informed when Nazi transports were en route to Norway, and its failure to interrupt the invasion reflected the inability of the naval forces to function under skies which wore held by land-based enemy aviation.

Major Deserversky pointed out that Rear-Admiral Yaruell’s article coincided with the Congressional hearings on proposals to separate the United States air force from army and navy control, and his timing was scarcely coincidental. [“ The R.A.F. has been ineffective as an all-rohnd military tool, and in many instances it attacks British units it is supposed to be supporting,” writes Rear-Admiral Harry Yarnell in ‘ Collier’s Magazine,’ on the basis of “ authentic but hitherto secret reports from our observers abroad.” The observers reported, he said, that the British soldiers were so resentful after Crete that members of the R.A.F. were not permitted in the streets of Alexandria when the rescued soldiers disembarked, that the R.A.F. time after time refused to attack U-boats off England, contending that it was the Navy's j'ob. and the R.A.F. even bombed a British cruiser mistakenly during the Bismarck chase. “ Nothing I say is intended to deprecate in any way the truly great heroism and skill of the R.A.F. pilots or the magnificent job they have done in protecting London from bombing. The R.A.F.’s work over the British Isles saved England, but its work elsewhere has added up a major British mistake of the war, and I believe the mistake lies in the fact that it is an'independent unit.” RearAdmiral Yarnell added that 48 hours before the German invasion of Norway R.A.F. scouts saw transports in the North Sea, but they were only mildly interested, and reported in routine fashion, with the result that the information reached the Admiralty after the invasion began.]

AWARDED GEORGE MEDAL

OFFICERS AND MEN IN MIDDLE EAST (British Official Wireless.) (Rec. 8 a.m.) RUGBY, Nov. 19. The George Medal has been awarded to six officers and men for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty at Suez on July 14 to 15 in effecting the salvage of a captured German tank which had been loaded on the German steamer Georgia for shipment to Britain, when that ship was ablaze from stem to stern and listing heavily as the result of enemy bombing. The port authorities had advised that the task was impossible, but volunteers deliberately faced the risks involved, knowing the importance attached to an expert examination of the tank. In spite of smoke and flames the party managed to pass slings under the tank, which was lifted clear by a floating crane and taken safely ashore.

The George Medal also goes to three officers and men for very gallant conduct, courage, and resourcefulness on February 8 at Tobruk in removing 90 men from an ammunition ■ ship which had been set on fire by a burning oil tanker colliding with her.

CLERGYMAN UNDER SUSPICION

ARREST MADE IN ROME LONDON, Nov. IS. A Home message stales that the rector of the American Episcopal Church, the llev. Mr Hiram Woolf, of New York, was arrested on suspicion of being engaged in intelligence activity.

DUTCH JEWS

HIGH DEATH RATE IN CONCENTRATION GAMP LONDON, Nov. 17. About 400 deaths are reported among GBO young Dutch Jews in a concentration camp in Upper Austria, says ‘ The Times.’ The death rate in the last three weeks in September was 50 each week. All the indications point to the death rate being due to extremely hard labour, cruel treatment, bad nutrition, and unhygienic conditions.