HISTORY OF R AT.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 April 1943, Page 4

HISTORY OF R AT.

TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY FIRST WORLD WAR. TREMENDOUS EXPANSION MADE. In August, 1914, the R.A.F. did not exist. Instead, there was the Royal Flying Corps, which had at its disposal a total of 179 planes, and a personnel strength of 146 officers and 1079 ranks, and . the Royal Naval Air Service <9l planes, 130 officers, 700 ratings). Only 100 of the 270. planes were fit to take the field. The best aeroplane of 1914 was the “70 Renault 8.E.” which had a speed of 73 m.p.h. and could climb 3000 feet in nine minutes; its armament was a rifle or a revolver. There was no organised aircraft industry in Britain and for the first twelve months of the war the average delivery was only 50 planes per month. On Ist April, 1918, the Royal Air Force was established. By November, 1918, its strength was 27,333 officers, 263,837 other ranks and 20,647 planes. A typical plane of 1918, the “Sopwith Snipe,” had a speed of over 130 m.p.h. and could climb 15,000 feet in twelve minutes; its armament was two Vickers machine-guns firing together 1500 rounds per minute, through the propeller. During the last twelve months of the war the average monthly delivery of planes had risen to 2700. In March, 1920, there were only 25 R.A.F. squadrons in existence (twelve at home) with eight in process of formation. The personnel was 2800 of all ranks. In 1923 when 35 R.A.F. squadrons were in existence, it was decided to increase the home defence force to 69 squadrons, a net increase of 34 squadrons. In October, 1933, Germany left the Disarmament Conference. The July, 1934, programme announced new increases in the R.A.F. Home Defence Force from 52 to 75 squadrons, plus an additional 8 squadrons for the Fleet Air Arm and the R.A.F. overseas. In 1935 new measures were announced superseding the 1934 programme and calling for 1500 first line planes by the spring of 1937. In 1936, the R.A.F. was still further expanded. The target was now 1750 planes for home defence and 217 for the Fleet Air Arm by the spring of 1938, plus 419 for the R.A.F. overseas by 1939. Expansion continued, but further figures are secret. Though small in numbers during the between-war period, the R.A.F. was very advanced technically; e.g., (a) In 1931 the R.A.F. won the Schneider Trophy outright. This competition assisted in the development of the famous Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, (b) In 1933 the decision to equip the R.A.F. with multi-gun fighters was taken, (c) The Spitfire (designer, R. J. Mitchell) and the Hurricane (designed by Sidney Camm) were ordered; both appeared in 1936. The Rolls-Royce engine, the armament decision and the planes themselves won the “Battle of Britain in 1940. Thus both Britain and the world were saved from the Nazis by expert planning years previously. In the field of production here again British far-sightedness was apparent. Shadow factories were started in 1936. They were designed to use the facilities of the motor system and were spread all over the country, wide dispersal mak-. ing the industry invulnerable to air attack. In the present war the numbers of planes and personnel, details of certain types and rate of production are all secret. But the power of the 1943 R.A.F. is demonstrated daily and the technical skill is shown by the fact that since 1939 new British fighters comprise the best night fighter, and the best day fighter in the world. New bombers comprise the Beaufort, Mosquito (fast-, est day bomber in the world), Halifax, Manchester, Stirling and Lancaster (the last being the best night bomber in the world).