STRATEGY IN THE AIR.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 6, 7 December 1931, Page 12

STRATEGY IN THE AIR.

QUELLING DISTURBANCES. The despatch of 150 fully-armed infantrymen by troop-carrying aeroplanes from Egypt to Cyprus when the disturbances there had reached a dangerous stage is a picturesque example of the swift action made possible by use of the flying machine. Seven of these big biplanes, each able to transport 22 men and their fighting equipment, left Heliopolis aerodrome one afternoon, alighted at Rainleh, in Palestine, that evening and flew on to Nicosia, the chief city of the island, in the morning. The flight of the machines in formation over the city before landing had an instant effect on rioters in the streets and a few hours later the situation was reported quiet. During the following day they were reinforced by a flight of Fairey day bombers from No. 45 Squadron, also sent from Cairo. Much modern British aerial strategy is based on the employment of troopcarriers and similar “heavy transport” aircraft. Machines of this kind have maintained a full supply service of fuel, ammunition, food and other equipment for many days at a time between headquarters and a squadron engaged on active service operations hundreds of miles away.

Perhaps the most striking achievement of the “heavy transport” craft was the evacuation of refugees from Kabul during the Afghan civil war in the winter of 1928-29. Flying over some of the most_ hazardous country in'the world, Vickers “Victoria” aeroplanes, exactly like the troopcarriers now in Cyprus, transported to safety in India hundreds of men, women and children whose lives were threatened in the Afghan capital. Altogether six hundred persons, of 11 different European and Asiatic nationalities, were moved by air in this way, without fuss or injury.