OUR AIR CHIEF

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 August 1940, Page 6

OUR AIR CHIEF

POST OF VITAL IMPORTANCE SIR CYRIL NEWALL’S QUALIFICATIONS. ONE OF WORLD'S GREAT LEADERS. Of all the great leaders of the world today one man is seldom mentioned. His job is of paramont importance; his 'great organisation is spoken about and written about every day. yet his name hardly ever appears in print; his photograph is missing from the pages of the illustrated journals; the man in the street has probably never heard of him. That man is Air Chief Marshal Sir Cyril Newall (writes George Johnston, in the “Melbourne Argus”). Today, with Britain threatened by invasion, and with air power its most vital method of active defence, he has one of the most important jobs in England. If the war lasts another year or two he will be one of the most important and significant figures of the world. Sir Cyril Newall is Chief of the Air Staff of the R.A.F., and is virtually the Empire's Commander-in-Chief of the Air. This quiet man, who doesn’t talk much, who hates personal publicity, who vzould rather dig in his little garden than play the great personage on the stage of world affairs, holds in his hand the destiny of Britain . . . perhaps the destiny of the civilised world.

When Royal Air Force night bombers roar across the Channel and loose flartiing fury from their bomb racks on to the oil depots of Hamburg or the docks of Wilhelmshaven, they. are guided by the dapper little man in London—Sir Cyril Newall. Under his direct control are the mighty machines which have roared over Prague and Berlin and Vienna, carrying aerial cameras or bundles of leaflets; the air defences of London, the great machines patrolling far out over the grey sea lanes, the attacks on U-boats and supply ships and transports, the raids on Sylt and Heligoland, the part played by the R.A.F. in the epic of Dunkirk, the comet-like Spitfires and Hurricanes which have swept into the sky day after day, night after’ night, to give battle to German invaders far above the crazyquilt landscape of England. Air Chief Marshal Sir Cyril Newall is more than that. His responsibility extends to the far corners of Empire. The importance of that fact cannot be over-emphasised.

The dominions are playing their part in a great scheme which must be an important factor in ultimate British victory —the Empire air scheme. When that scheme reaches its peak, when hundreds of planes and thousands of men in Air Force blue are flocking from the dominions to Britain, then Sir Cyril Ncwall will be in command of the greatest air armada the world has ever seen —-the "most important man on earth.” as one international journalist has described him. His control in the air in Britain is undisputed, except for the Fleet Air Arm, which, of course, is under separate and distinct control. What do we know of this unobtrusive figure who is playing such a big part in Britain’s struggle for the salvation of the world?

FIGHTING IN THE BLOOD. We know that fighting and warfare are in his blood. He was born 54 years ago at an Indian frontier military post, within carshot o'f Afghan gunlire. His father was an Army colonel, and he himself moved in the conventional channels along his path of distiny—• Bedford, Sandhurst, a subaltern in the Warwickshire's, military service in the east.

Then he returned to England. Four years before the Great War he first saw an aeroplane in flight—a slow, lat-tice-built crate. But he realised the immense value it could play in warfare. He decided to learn at his own expense —to take his knowledge back to India. He returned to the NorthWest frontier with the Royal Aero Club’s certificate No. 144 tucked away in his breast pocket. The Army asked him to organise a flying school in India .... But an

arc,hduke had been assassinated in Sarajevo. Clouds gathered over Europe, and broke in the lightning and thunder of war.

Newall was ordered to France as a flight-commander in No. 1 Squadron. Within* a year ho had risen to command No. 12 Squadron. Later be was asked to organise a British bombing squadron to begin reprisals against Germany for the bombing of London. And Newall was the first British commander to take the great bombing planes over the areas which even now are being plastered by the new R.A.F. Today, when he orders the Bomber Command lo organise a raid on the Rhineland, he knows exactly what the order implies. He lias done the job himself.

Peace found Sir Cyril Ncwall still attached to the Air Ministry, rising rank by rank by brilliant thinking, immense perseverance, and amazing knowledge.

He gained direct personal knowledge of every form of R.A.F. work. . . . Then a figure called Hitler began his first timid prancings on the European stage. There were moves by politicians to obtruct air expansion. Newall fought them tooth and nail. By 1935 Lord Trcnchard was saying: "At the beginning of the next war the Chief of the Air Staff probably will be hanged by civilians outraged that the defence of London was not good enough.” But Sir Cyril Newall has not been hanged. Two years before the war broke out he was made Chief of the Air Staff.

BALLOON BARRAGES. People sneered and scoffed at him when he insisted on the balloon barrage as London's defence against dive bombers. Germany has copied the barrage, and nobody sneers at it today. He fought bitter criticism in his insistence that an effective black-out should be maintained. He worked like a man possessed lo build up Britain's. Air Force —to catch up on the deadly lag which had been encouraged by peacepraying politicians. Today there is nothing but praise for the work of the Royal Air Force. The man responsible for much of its success quietly goes ahead building up. building up. . . . No noise, no publicity, no statements. The result is that today in Australia, when one asks the ques-1 lion: "Who is Sir Cyril Newall." the answer is usually; "I'll bite. Who is he?"

j Sir Cyril Newall is so much out of (he public eye that there are no anecdotes about him. When he goes out to dine his table companions are usually common sergeants o? aircraftsmen —not commissioned pilots. He is usually at work, but when at home his only recreations are gardening and reading books about air warfare. Who is Sir Cyril Newall? He is the man who was awarded the Albert Medal (usually awarded to civilians) in 1916 when a big fire broke out in a Royal Flying Corps bomb store eon- . taming more than 2000 high explo-1 sive bombs. The key was lost. Ncwall j climbed on (he roof, cut a hole in the i iron, and played a hose through on to the flames' The bombs were saved I when the flames were within a foot of them!