R. A. F. Against Odds

(See Cover)

Over 184,000 square miles of Western Europe, nearly eight times the area covered by clashing land Armies, the world's first great air battle was being fought last week. There was more to the battle than myriad engagements of fighting planes, more than methodical, day & night bombing of objectives behind the lines, more than the terrifying, endless strafing of ground troops. Last week's battle was the first big test of Douhet's famed theory that victory belongs to the side with the greatest air force.

In number of first-line planes Britain and France were outnumbered nearly three to two. With the odds thus against them, the Allied Air Forces had the tough assignment of stemming a new type of military drive, devised by the Germans-a war of maneuver in which the air forces of both sides assumed many of the responsibilities taken by the artillery in 1914-18.

Said Allied Generalissimo Gamelin in his last pronunciamento before being relieved: "The British Air Force, like the French, is fighting to the last man." Actually the R. A. F. was fighting not only to the last man but to the last plane and past the point of physical exhaustion. The pilots of the R. A. F. had to make up for lack of numbers by making flight after flight and taking off on new tasks as swiftly as their planes could be refueled and remunitioned. Day and night, from end to end of the Flanders Plain, hell reigned above earth.

The first achievement of the German Air Force was the capture last fortnight of Rotterdam's airport. Thereafter it helped reduce Eben Emael, some of the forts at Liege, flew interference for the German columns which rolled through, strafed the British and French columns advancing to meet them. Low-flying German attack bombers were largely responsible for the break-through at Sedan by strafing the defenders with machine guns and small bombs. Behind the Allied lines high-flying dive bombers hurtled down from the sky to blast away at air fields and communication lines.

In the first few days of the war in the West, Allied pursuit planes did enough damage to force the German bombers to fly in smaller formations, German fighters to patrol in large units to protect them. One notable achievement of the Allied air arm was a violent air attack on the German columns advancing on Sedan. Though outnumbered, they succeeded in destroying pontoon bridges, breaking up tank concentrations. That day the Germans claimed to have downed 200 Allied planes, but the French estimated that at least five German mechanized divisions were temporarily prevented from pouring into the Sedan salient.

German attack bombers blasted French troops almost at will, indicating a sad numerical weakness in French defensive fighters. The most effective defense then as against all low-flying planes was the aimed fire of the ordinary rifle.

In Flanders the R. A. F. got orders to attack enemy bombers and fighting planes "regardless of the numbers " One striking example: six Hurricane fighters fought 54 German fighters. This fighting against odds was forced on the outnumbered Allied ships but it was not so suicidal as it looked.

Air fighting often boils down to single combat between planes and British experts claimed the R. A. F. preferred to fight in small units.

Meanwhile the British Air Command started something it had not tried in all the eight months of World War II: night bombing of military and industrial objectives in Germany. British Wellingtons, Whitleys and Hampdens raided far into Germany. Oil storage tanks in Hamburg and Bremen were destroyed, communications bombed up & down the Rhineland.

In one raid the British claimed to have wrought havoc over a 200-mile stretch of Rhineland between Dusseldorf and Mann heim. Their special objectives were gasoline tanks and refineries, the fuel supply which Germany needs for her planes and motorized equipment. Such attacks in vited retaliation, but the British knew they would soon be bombed anyhow.

British bombers did their raiding from England, instead of basing in France. This kept a force at home to bomb German troops that might be landed in Britain, and made the problem of supplying them easier. But the longer flights imposed extra strain on pilots and cut down the frequency of their raids.

Doing most of their bombing at night and having fewer planes in air, the Allied losses of ships were probably fewer than those of the Germans. They officially claimed that their losses were only a quarter to a third of the Germans'. The German claims reversed the relative losses. Opposing claims: Allies, 1,000; Germans, 1,500.

Double Duty. The job of the R. A. F. in France was directed by Air Marshal-Arthur Sheridan Barratt, and his two Vice Marshals, Charles Hubert Blount (pronounced Blunt) and Patrick Henry Lyon Playfair.

Baldish, pug-faced "Ugly" Barratt has been chief of the R. A. F. in France since last January, when, as a sop to Army chiefs who demanded control of the air arm, the Air Ministry picked him as the best expert on Army cooperation problems. Under him are two commands, Army Cooperation and the Advance Striking Force. One cooperates with the British Expeditionary Force, the other with the French Air Force.

Last fortnight, as Germany's fighting machine swept into the Low Countries, the Army Cooperation components under Vice Marshal Blount went into long awaited action, speeding ahead of Lord Gort's advancing columns, searching out German mechanized units and dropping the light bombs they carry in the stub wings below their main wings, pbo" ANDTraphing, ground strafing with their L.ree machine guns although Messerschmitts and Junkers blackened the sky. Their chief targets were the dive bombers which systematically strafed advancing columns of Lord Gort's Army and sometimes machine gunned refugees to slow up the advance by littering the roads with dead, wounded and the wreckage of their belongings.

Marshal Barratt's other Vice Marshal, "Pip" Playfair, commanding the Advance Striking Force, went into action behind the German lines in France and Belgium. It was a squadron of Playfair's Blenheims which at Sedan fought its way through a screen of Messerschmitts, found the pencil streak of a new pontoon bridge with German sappers still working on it and a line of tanks waiting to cross. Harassed by fighters and anti-aircraft fire, the Blenheims swooped down in line, dropping their bombs in clusters until the bridge went up in smoke and flying timber. Still pursued, the Blenheims sped upriver and destroyed a Meuse bridge crowded with mechanized detachments. The British lost 37 planes, but may have saved the Allied retreat from turning into a rout.

Old Timers. Air Marshal Barratt and his assistant Playfair were both at home in last week's action. Both had fought over the same territory in World War I.

When, after four years of service in the artillery, Lieutenant Barratt wangled a transfer to the Royal Flying Corps in 1914, Great Britain's two-year-old air arm consisted of four squadrons of twelve planes each. Each of the 48 planes had two pilots, which added up to about 100 trained flyers. One of the flying officers of No. 4 squadron was Lieutenant Playfair, who had also been an officer of the Royal Artillery.

Standard equipment for each Royal Flying Corps plane in 1914 was: two revolvers, four pairs of field glasses, a roll of tools, a water bottle, a small stove and a haversack of biscuits, cold meat, chocolate, soup extract. The idea was that the flyers would observe enemy movements and, if forced down, they could subsist until they found their way home or were captured. It was the pilots' own idea to stuff their pockets with hand grenades and tie two or three small bombs around their waists.

First scene of R. F. C. reconnaissance operations was the same battlefield that R. A. F. fought over last week. At the Battle of Mons the flyers scouted (with the aid of maps torn from railway guides) Namur, Louvain, Alost, Courtrai, Tournai, Charleroi. So weird were the reports they brought back (graveyards were reported as bivouacs) that infantry generals paid little attention to them. They were under the additional disadvantage of frequently being fired on by their own men (which was not uncommon last week). But by early 1915 real war in the air had begun.

At the end of the war, Lieutenant Commander Barratt resigned his regular Army commission and joined the Air Ministry Directorate of Training and Organization, which was to plan the greater R. A. F. of the next war. Wing Commander Playfair was made commandant of the Central Flying School at Netheravon. Both were loaded with decorations.

Later Commander Barratt was stationed in Shanghai, at Peshawar, India (where he was born), at the R. A. F. Staff College at Andover. War I's Canadian Ace, Captain Billy Bishop, once said of Barratt: "I know of no one possessing such perfect coordination of mind and muscle. Nothing he really wants to do is beyond him."

Playfair became a Group Captain in 1923 and in 1928 went to Palestine. For his work there he was made Air Commodore in 1930 and sent to India as Chief Staff Officer. He was put in command of the bomber squadron at Andover in 1933, made an Air Vice Marshal the following year the first man ever to reach that rank at 44. Three months ago he said to his men: "Keep fit, keep cheerful, and above all fight against boredom. These quiet times are nearing their end."

Heroes. Stories of individual exploits last week tended to support the entire R. A. F.'s record of desperate heroism. On the day fighting in the Low Countries began, Australian Pilot "Cobber" Kane returned to his unit with shrapnel wounds in his hands. "Turned out nice again, hasn't it?" said he to his adjutant, then took his machine into action. During the week he accounted for ten German planes.

Highest score for the week was made by Australian Pilot Leslie Clisby, with 14 enemy ships, seven in one day. Coldblooded Pilot Clisby, 26, was seen engaging a Heinkel in action, then disappeared. Three hours later he turned up at the orderly room with two German prisoners in tow. After forcing the Heinkel down he had landed his own ship, chased the German crew into a wood, captured them at revolver's point. Pilot Clisby's commanding officer remarked it was a bit uncommon for pilots to bring back prisoners.

Figures. Germany has a vast reserve force of pilots, and will not soon run short. Even if the R. A. F. brings down two planes for every one of its own lost, Germany is turning out some 2,300 planes a month, and Great Britain only 1,200. Fact is that the Allies have no hope of gaining command of the air even if Lord Beaverbrook can boost home production (see p. 36) until 1941 when the U. S. begins to deliver planes and Canada to deliver pilots in quantity. Unless Germany runs out of airplane gasoline there can be no early equality in the air except in the courage and skill of pilots.

Wings Over England? As the German land drive turned westward from below Sedan and headed for the English Channel, the British Isles waited for the blow that was inevitable. Their only countermeasure last week begun in advance was to try to devastate the Ruhr munitions works, to bomb at long range German aircraft production centres at Dessau, Rostock, Oranienburg, Augsburg, Rangsdorf, Johan-nisthal, Gotha, Schonefeld, Halle, Leipzig. Factories in those places were believed to be supplying Germany with 50 warplanes and 90 motors a day. Hopefully the British declared that their own defenses could inflict 40% losses (coming & going) on Nazi bombers who attack them at home. Nonetheless, the British faced a serious tactical disadvantage if Germany pushed on to the Channel. Then the R. A. F., with its bombers in Britain, would still have to keep its pursuit planes in France, to protect an ally whose Air Force is inadequate. Germany could then strike in either direction, with its opponents' Air Forces split. Against this double threat. Britain last week extended its balloon-&-steel-cable barrage, warned its populace of dangers to come, waited.

*Air Marshal is a rank corresponding to lieutenant general in the land army; air vice marshal corresponds to major general; wing commander to lieutenant colonel; squadron leader to major.

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