INDIAN FRONTIER PATROLS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 86, 12 April 1938, Page 7

INDIAN FRONTIER PATROLS

VALUE OF AIR FORCE GENERAL CASSELS TRIBUTE (By Mail) ' LONDON, April 1. Royal Air Force and Indian Aii Force aeroplanes engaged in las* year’s war against lawless tribesmen in the province of Waziristan, on the north-west frontier of India, flew 11,000 hours on active service. In distance they covered more than a million miles. High tribute to the value of aerial .co-operation in this bitter struggle L 'paid by General Sir Robert Cassels, I Commander-in-Chief in India. He writes: “The tasks assigned to the air forces entailed long flights and patrols, often under very trying flying conditions. The negligible number of forced landings which occurred indicates that aircraft maintenance was of a very high order. ... I cannot speak too highly of the work of the Royal Air Force during these operations.” Aircraft were employed on three kinds of action—against tribal forces which engaged in fighting British troops; against hostile fortified villages; and against “proscribed” areas where unrest and lawless activities had persisted in spite of peaceful measures. In the two latter categories of operation ample warning was invariably given to enable inhabitants to evacute the areas concerned before bombing was begun. General Cassels expresses the view that the continuous pressure of air action had an important part in securing the eventual submission ol the tribesmen. It secured the sur-i i render of hostages and of people who ihad been kidnapped. Frequently themere threat of air action proven wholly effective. Columns of ground troops were invariably accompanied by aircraft flyling in close support. This aerial coi operation proved of high tactical [value. Bomber-transport aeroplanes I were used extensively to carry , military personnel and stores and to evacuate casualties, thereby saving (sick and wounded men long and tryingjourneys on the ground. Every reader of the general’s dispatch must realise that, without aerial co-operation casualties would undoubtedly have been heavier, while the cost and period of the operations might well have been greatly augmented.