SEVERAL Military Critics Have Recently Written That, When The

Proprietors: TEMPLE PRESS LIMITED Managing Director: ROLAND E. DANGERFIELD Head Office: Incorporating: BOWLING GREEN LANE, LONDON, E.C.1 Aeronautical Engineering Telephone : TERminus 3636 No. 1701 DECEMBER 31, 1943 VOL. LXV. IJ11 i i) 11fIi1111fIi11111f1111i i f11111111iIiI!If191HIi N111f11111111fI!1111j111fIH1111II1111i11j11111111111111111111111111111f11111111111i111111!Ii i13IIi1111h11 f11J11111111J11i11iI!J11111111111j f1111111i11111111!111! I AIR UMBRELLA EVERAL military critics have recently written that, effect upon occasion and has come to be known as the when the invasion takes place in Northern Europe, “ Tedder Carpet,” but it is quite different from what an “ Air Umbrella ” will be essential to success. is usually known as air support for the army. SWe do not know who coined that term, but it is most Military critics are naturally reluctant to lay. any unfortunate, for it implies the antithesis *o the correct blame for the army’s lack of success on the army itself employment of air power. If it means anything, it and try to find a scapegoat. The Air Force has usually denotes putting a screen of fighters over the heads of been blamed, but in Italy the weather has also been the troops to prevent their being attacked from the air. made responsible. The weather has been awful and we We hope that the army is not being taught that air power have been shown pictures of our troops wading through will be misemployed in that way. the flooded Sangro and other streams. It is difficult not The first task of the air forces when used in support to compare them with the way in which the Russians of an army should be to obtain mastery in the air. stormed across the Dnieper, a far more formidable That having been done, aircraft can unhindered turn obstacle. The truth is that since it got away from desert their attention to ground targets. This method was conditions our army has been undeniably sticky. We followed in both the successful German campaigns and, have no doubt that Mr. Churchill inquired closely into by us, in North Africa, Sicily, and Italy. In Italy, the the reasons during his Mediterranean visit and we know method of employing our fighters may have conveyed that the C.I.G.S. went to Italy to see for himself. the impression'of an “ Air Umbrella,” but only because Judging by Mr. Eden’s report to Parliament on his there were no hostile aircraft. The fighters cruised return, the results of the inquiry were not very rbout trying to find an enemy to attack in the air while reassuring. :he light bombers and fighter-bombers attacked enemy It has been argued that there is no great need for rapid :roops and transports without opposition except from progress in Italy and, since the Italians capitulated, no ^ery heavy A.A., fire. great value in capturing Rome. The strategic plan can Constant attacks on road and rail transport must have not be that the army should fight its way up through rendered transport of supplies to the German forces most Italy and then be given the task of scaling the Alps. difficult. Nevertheless, our army has been making very But the acquisition of aerodromes from which to deliver slow progress, and a contemporary, trying to find an heavy attacks .on the industrial areas in Austria and excuse, suggested that it had been receiving less effective Southern Germany might have most important results. support from the air than the Luftwaffe had been able This is the reason for our impatience. Every day, every to give to the German army. We can only assume that week, every month that those factories escape heavy the official reports 'have been completely ignored. In* attack, they are turning out weapons which can be used every one of them the General in command of the to prolong the war. operation has paid the highest tribute to the most Victory will not finally be ours until our armies are effective support he has received from the air. Another in occupation of German soil. Hitler has been boasting contemporary which specialises in air matters produced of his “ Festung ” of Europe and has been paying great the unusual theory that bombing in support of the army attention to the erection of fortifications to make it as is less effective in the hills than in the plains. We had difficult as possible. The Russians have been making always believed the exact opposite to be the fact. The great progress but are still a long way from Germany. airman prays for an opportunity to find a target in a -An advance into Germany by way of Italy, tjie defile. ' In open country where troops and transport can Balkans, or even Southern France must inevitably take scatter off the road air attack, apart from its moral effect, a long time. An invasion of Northern Europe may be can do little more than impose delay. This, of course, quicker but depends upon the amount of resistance the applies to troops on the move. Troops which are firmly established in position are not suitable targets for the German army is able to offer, and the best means of normal method of air attack either by dive bomber, light breaking down that resistance* is by bombing Germany’s bomber, or fighter-bomber. They have little to fear war industry. from the lighter type of bomb and with their own A.A. Thus allied strategy should aim at providing air bases weapons should be able to take a heavy toll of the as quickly as possible from which the heaviest possible attackers, Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder scale of bombing attack can be delivered at German appreciated that, when it was necessary for the air arm industry. The army is responsible for getting forward to blast ground forces out of an established position, to seize and hold the necessary air bases. It must be the use of a great weight of the biggest type of bomb was given every assistance by the air force, but not by means advisable. Such a method has been used with good of an “ Air Umbrella.” THE AEROPLANE 744 DECEMBER 31, 1943 MATTERS OF MOMENT in 1919. During 1918 and 1919 he was serving in Egypt and Allied Invasion Commands was mentioned three times in despatches. From 1922 to 1923 HE NAMES of the officers to command the Allied forces he commanded No. 207 Squadron in Constantinople; 1923- for the forthcoming invasion of Europe and liberation of 1924 the Royal Naval Stall College; 1924-1926 commanded occupied countries were announced from 10, Downing Street, No. 2 Flying Training School; 1926-1927 on the Directing Staff Tand the White House in Washington on of the R.A.F. Staff College; 1929-1931 • Dec. 24. commanded the Air Armament School at General Dwight D. Eisenhower is to Eastchurch; 1932-1933 Director of Train be Supreme Allied Commander of the ing at the Air Ministry; 1934-1936 Air British and United States Expeditionary Officer Commanding in the Far East; Forces operating from the United 1938-1940 Director-General of Research Kingdom for the liberation of Europe. and Development at the Air Ministry; General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson is and 1940-1941 Deputy Air Officer to be Supreme Allied Commander in the Commanding-in-Chief in the Middle East. Mediterranean. Since Feb. 17, 1943, he has been Air General Sir Harold Alexander is to be Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Mediter Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Armies ranean Command. in Italy. Air Chief Marshal Tedder is the author General Sir Bernard Montgomery is to of “ The Navy of the Restoration,” pub be Commander-in-Chief . of the British lished in 1915. Group of Armies under General Major-General Carl Spaatz, D.F.C., Eisenhower. D.S.C., was appointed in July, 1942, General Carl Spaatz is to command to the command of the United States the American Strategic Bombing Force Air Forces in the European Theatre of operating against Germany. Operations, and held this appointment On Dec. 27 Air Chief Marshal Sir until early in 1943, when he left Great Arthur William Tedder, G.C.B., was Britain to take up command in North named as Deputy Supreme Commander Africa. under General Eisenhower. He is 52 and has been connected with This is the first time that an Air Force aviation since he was 25. It was in officer has been appointed to such an 1916 that he first flew, when he joined important strategical command and indi General Eisenhower. the aviation section of the U.S. Signal c e s that, in the opinions of leaders of Corps. He was one of the first American the Allied Nations, pilots to go over Sir Arthur Tedder seas in the World is the leading air War of 1914-1918, strategist of the and while overseas present day. Air he commanded the C h i e f- Marshal largest U.S. flying Tedder is 53 years training school in of age and was edu France. cated at Whitgift During the and Magdalene Battle of Britain College, Cam he was in Great bridge, where he Britain as an i took a B.A. official observer. After a few years Major - General in the Colonial Spaatz takes up his Service, including n e w command a period in Fiji, from North Africa Sir Arthur Tedder where he com was commissioned manded the North- in the Dorset West African Air Regiment in 1913 Force from the' and was seconded time of the Allied to the Royal Fly invasion. He then ing Corps in 1916. came under the He received a per command of Air manent commis- Chief Marshal Sir Air Chief Marshal Sir A.

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