Fleet Air Arm and RAF. Work Together

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 308, 30 December 1939, Page 8

Fleet Air Arm and RAF. Work Together

RUGBY, Dec. 28. In a broadcast dealing with "The Navy That Files.” a naval eyewitness,, recalling how the Fleet Air Arm was once* a branch of the Royal Air Force to which the Royal Navy contributed three-quarters of the pilots and all the observers, said that, although it was administered when ashore by the Royal Air Force and when afloat by the Navy, the arrangement worked well because tt was founded on unbounded goodwill. In spite of this, the scheme had inherent disadvantages which no amount of goodwill could overcome, and in consequence the Fleet Air Arm had become part of the Royal Navy, living for the most part in aircraft-carriers . and in large warships. As the speaker said, there is a great deal of close co-operation. In a convoy some weeks ago, the naval commander is charge called on the Royal Air Force, who came out to shoot down seven out of 12 attacking Nazis and tc drive off the remainder. Not always docs the Fleet Air Arm work from the sea, for the continuous patrol which crosses the North Sea from dawn to dusk is shore-based and is carried out in conjunction with the Royal Air Force. In the course of his broadcast, the speaker told of a conversation he had with a midshipman of 20 who is one of the pilots working on this patrol. This young man told him, he saidThat the hunt was grand. It was the kill that wasn’t so funny.” He himself had intercepted a German bombing machine one afternoon, and the grim game began in a series of gigantic clouds. The enemy dived, banked and dodged from one cloud cover to another, and a relentless pursuit went on,* said the midshipman. T rippec ahead to a cloud I though he would make for, and I waited for him on the other side. Gosh, that was fun. I goi him as he came through at a range of yards. But then, when you saw the poor devils spinning down nose first through the clouds, with smoke pouring from the engine, it wasn’t so good. .* hated that part of the business.” r That’s how they feel about it,” said the eyewitness