ROYAL AIR FORCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 November 1941, Page 5

ROYAL AIR FORCE

CRITICISED BY AMERICAN ADMIRAL ASTONISHING ALLEGATIONS. INDEPENDENT CONSTITUTION ' CONDEMNED. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright)' NEW YORK. November 6. “The Royal Air Force has been in-, effective as an all-round military tool, and there are many instances of attacks on British units it was' supposed to be supporting,” Rear-Admiral Harry Yarnell writes in “Collier's Weekly” on the basis of “authentic, hitherto secret, reports from ' our observers abroad.”

He says that the observers reported that the British soldiers were so resentful after Crete that members of the R.A.F. were not permitted in the streets of Alexandria when the rescued soldiers had disembarked; that the R.A.F., time after time, refused to attack U-boats off England, contending it was the Navy’s job; and that the R.A.F. even bombed a British cruiser by mistake during the chase of the Bismarck.

"Nothing I say is intended to deprecate in any way the truly great heroism and skill of the R.A.F. pilots or the magnificent job they have done in protecting London from bombing,” he states. "The R.A.F.’s work over the British Isles saved England. Its work elsewhere has added up to the major British mistake of the war. I believe the mistake lies in the fact that it is an independent unit.” He adds that 48 hours before the German invasion of Norway R.A.F. scouts saw transports in the North Sea, but were only mildly interested and reported in a routine fashion, with the result that the information reached the Admiralty after the invasion began.