NOTES ON THE WAR

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 3248, 5 April 1943, Page 7

NOTES ON THE WAR

BRITAIN’S AIR ARM

R.A.F’s. SILVER JUBILEE

FORMED DURING GREAT WAR

There are indications that Rommel is not making a stand north of the Gables Gap with full use of artillery and minefields to delay the' Eighth Army’s advance. The French and American forces are still some distance to the west, making headway only with difficulty through rough country against strong resistance. Further north the position at Maknassy and Fondouk seems stationary for the moment. In the far north the First Army is taking the offensive. The weather has not been favourable for air operations ,but Rommel’s retreat is being continuously harassed. Last'Thursday was the twenty-fifth anniversary of the establishment of the Royal Air Force, now the greatest in the, world.

Thursday, April 1, the Royal Air Force celebrated its 25th birthday. Two factors are mainly responsible for its birth, the German raids on London Sin daylight and appreciation of air power as' an independent arm. The view that an air force, operating independently of the Army and Navy, could be a weapon of considerable value was taken in a report presented. by General Smuts at 'the request of the Government in August, 1917.

The Air ‘Force Bill, creating both an Air Force and an Air Ministry, was introduced in the House of -Commons on November 8, 1917, and on April 1, 1918, the Royal Naval Air Service and the Royal Flying Corps were welded into one. The Royal Air Force was born. The Royal Flying Corps, formed in 1912, had at the outbreak of war in 1914 a strength of approximately 100 aircraft and three airships. The Allies could muster a total of about 1230 airciaft against the enemy’s. 1300 aircraft and 10 zeppelins.

’ In those early days men flew aircraft which would be regarded to-day as unsafe. Some machines were little more than light auto-engines harnese.sd to kites. The pilots were exposed to winds and. weather, And fought aerial duels with revolvers and rifles.

At the time of its formation the had approximately 13,500 aircraft, some airships, 24,0'00 officers, and 18,800 other' ranks. Its scope was increased, thanks to the training of pilots and ceaseless research and experiment.

As bigger and better bombers came off the production lines the R.A.F. carried the war into Germany. The independent air force formed in June, 1918, operated from bases in France. From January to November, 1918, nearly 5500 tons of bombs were dropped, 2953 enemy aircraft destroyed, and 5000' square miles of territory photographed.

In 1918 R.A.F. aircraft, led the world in speed, rate of climb • range. Service machines exceeded 140 m.p.h., and reached a 25,000 feet ceiling. Armistice and After . At the Armistice, the R.A.F. possessed more than 200 squadrons, 22,647 aircraft of all types, 103 airships and 291,00 Oofficers and men. On demobilisation the R.A.F. was reduced rapidly. By October, 1920', the personnel had been cut to less than a tenth of its previous strength. But for the foresight of Marshal of the Royal Air Force Lord Trenchard, the R.A.F. as a future fighting force might have sunk into oblivion. He saw the vital need and in a memorandum laid before Parliament in December, 1919, by Mr Churchill, then Secretary of State for Air, he built the foundations of a highly-trained and efficient force.

Patrolling the Empire left few squadrons for home defence. At one time demobilisation had reduced the R.A.F. strength to fewer than 25 per cent, of its former* 200' squadrons. Its strength was rising slowly again, but even in 1933 only 40 service and auxiliary squadrons were based on Britain.

It was not until the failure of the Geneva Conference in 1933 to secure disarmament that the R.A.F. expansion began in earnest. Factory output was stepped up, new types of machines designed, airfields built, a volunteer reserve of pilots air exercises widened in purpose and

scope. At sea aircraft continued to operate in conjunction with the Navy, but in 1024 the Navy took complete control of aircraft based on carriers, although the Air Ministry remained responsible for the design and supply of machines, and for equipment. These

units~"<sf the R.A.F. now became the Fleet Air Arm.

In The Presen t War

The present war came with Germany’s first-line fighter strength equal to that of Britain and France combined. When France collapsed the scales were tipped more heavily in favour of the Luftwaffe. But at the Dunkirk evacuation R.A.F. aircraft put a curtain of bombs around the embarkation points, and fighters fought back the Luftwaffe. Hitler decided to strike the final blow. Britain was to be invaded. Between Delfzijl in Holland and Bordeaux'in France he had concentrated 3000 invasion barges. Against these our bombers struck. As the Luft-i waffe sought to liquidate Britain s-home-based air defences Fighter Command shit it from the skies. On September 15, 194-0, 185 enemy aircraft were destroyed for the loss of 25. The Battle of Britain stood on the defensive while giant bombers began to roll off the priduction lines. Axis industrial and military targets began to feel the weight of the -R.A.F s striking power. U-boat bases were bombarded. Coastal Command kept unceasing vigil along the vital sea lanes. Lancasters, designed, by Roy Chadwick, who started as- a boy working in a .Manchester cellar for A. V. Roe and Company, penetrated to- the heart of Germany.

Here was a contrast from the Fairey Battle of the early days of the war to a giant all-metal monoplane with four Rolls-Royce Merlin engines, when fully loaded with a weight of 30 tons, maximum range of approximately 3000 miles, maximum bomb load of approximately 8 tons. The Battle had one Merlin II engine, fully loaded weight of 10,7921 b., a range of 1000 miles at 200' m.p.h., and two machineguns. The Lancaster’s armament is 10 Browning- .303 guns in four turrets. Early in the war pilots of the R.A.F.

held their own in such aircraft as the Gloster Gladiator, last of the fighter biplanes. The Gladiator’s top speed of 255 m.p.h. and four machine-guns compares feebly ‘ with the Mark IX Spitfire with a Merlin LXI engine, two cannon, four machineguns, a four-bladed propeller, and a speed of well over 400' m.p.h. In early forays over the German frontier the R.A.F. Army co-operation aircraft was- the Westland Lysander, with a range of 60fl miles and a maximum speed of 230 m.p.h. Its place

to-day is taken,-by the North American Mustang, the fastest Army co-opera-tion aircraft in service anywhere. Its speed- is reported from the United States as approximately 400 m.p.h. Against the Lysander’s three machineguns the Mustang carries eight. Most spectacular of all is t e

R.A.F’s. newest striking weapon, the wooden de Havilland Mosquito a long-range twin-engined / fighterbomber of unspecified speed with

which the R.A.F. recently bombed the very heart of Berlin. . . In such machines as these the spin of the pioneers of twenty-five yeais ago and the years' of peace between o-rows ever stronger, and typifies th Royal Air Force motto, “Per ardua ad astra.” :