Royal Air Force Historical Society Journal 54
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ROYAL AIR FORCE HISTORICAL SOCIETY JOURNAL 54 2 The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the contributors concerned and are not necessarily those held by the Royal Air Force Historical Society. First published in the UK in 2013 by the Royal Air Force Historical Society All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing. ISSN 1361 4231 Printed by Windrush Group Windrush House Avenue Two Station Lane Witney OX28 4XW 3 ROYAL AIR FORCE HISTORICAL SOCIETY President Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Michael Beetham GCB CBE DFC AFC Vice-President Air Marshal Sir Frederick Sowrey KCB CBE AFC Committee Chairman Air Vice-Marshal N B Baldwin CB CBE Vice-Chairman Group Captain J D Heron OBE Secretary Group Captain K J Dearman FRAeS Membership Secretary Dr Jack Dunham PhD CPsychol AMRAeS Treasurer J Boyes TD CA Members Air Commodore G R Pitchfork MBE BA FRAes Wing Commander C Cummings *J S Cox Esq BA MA *AVM P Dye OBE BSc(Eng) CEng ACGI MRAeS *Group Captain P J M Squires BEng RAF *Wing Commander C Hunter MMDS RAF Editor & Publications Wing Commander C G Jefford MBE BA Manager *Ex Officio 4 CONTENTS CORPS RECONNAISSANCE 1914-18 by Wg Cdr Jeff Jefford 8 ALL UNDILUTED NONSENSE’? – THE ROYAL AIR 36 FORCE IN THE ARMY CO-OPERATION ROLE, 1919-1940 by Clive Richards FROM ARMY CO-OPERATION TO FIGHTER 67 RECONNAISSANCE – DEVELOPMENTS 1939-1945 by Peter Elliott MORNING DISCUSSION 82 THE ORIGIN, DEVELOPMENT AND WARTIME SERVICE 90 OF THE AUSTER AIRCRAFT by Hugh Thomas FIRST IN THE FIELD – 651 SQUADRON, 1941-45 by Guy 102 Warner AIR OP AND THE ARMY AIR CORPS, POST-WW II by 119 Col Michael Hickey AFTERNOON DISCUSSION 136 SOLDIER PILOTS IN THE RAF 1920-41 by Wg Cdr Jeff 141 Jefford FLYING BADGES FOR ARMY PILOTS 1921-58 by Wg Cdr 154 Jeff Jefford FEEDBACK 164 BOOK REVIEWS 166 5 SELECTED ABBREVIATIONS A&AEE Aircraft and Armament Experimental Establishment AC Army Co-operation ACI Army Council Instruction ADGB Air Defence of Great Britain AGRA Army Group Royal Artillery ALG Advanced Landing Ground ALO Air Liaison Officer AMO Air Ministry Order AMWO Air Ministry Weekly Order AP Air Publication BAOR British Army of the Rhine BEF British Expeditionary Force BFI Bulk Fuel Installation CAS Chief of the Air Staff CG Centre of Gravity DOSD Director of Organisation and Staff Duties DRC Sub-Committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence concerned with Defence Policy and Requirements FR Fighter Reconnaissance JATE Joint Air Transport Establishment JEHU Joint Experimental Helicopter Unit JSP Joint Service Publication LRDG Long Range Desert Group OP Observation Post OPCON Operational Control ORB Operations Record Book aka the RAF Form 540 OS Ordnance Survey PRO Public Record Office PRU Photographic Reconnaissance Units RA Royal Artillery SAS Special Air Service SASO Senior Air Staff Officer SEAC South East Asia Command TNA The National Archives TOW Tube-launched, Optically-tracked, Wire-guided (missile) UTM Universal Transverse Mercator WD War Department WODC War Office Dress Committee 6 THE RAF AND THE ARMY CO-OPERATION ROLES INHERITED FROM THE EARLY RFC RAF MUSEUM, HENDON, 4 APRIL 2012 WELCOME ADDRESS BY THE SOCIETY’S CHAIRMAN Air Vice-Marshal Nigel Baldwin CB CBE Ladies and Gentlemen – good morning My usual thank you, of course, goes to Air Vice-Marshal Peter Dye and his colleagues here at the Museum who give so willingly of their time and of their facilities to help our Society. We would be lost without them. Today’s subject heading is a bit of a mouthful but our aims are, first, to mark the centenary of the Royal Flying Corps by examining its original ‘Army Co-op’ functions (that is to say, permitting the General to ‘see over the hill’ and the direction of artillery fire) and, secondly, to trace the evolution of those specific roles over succeeding years. Our Chairman for the day, Air Vice-Marshal David Niven, is very much a helicopter man, having flown them in Hong Kong, the Falkland Islands, Germany, Northern Ireland and on exchange with the Royal Navy. As a result, throughout his career, he has been closer to the British Army than most RAF officers. His staff appointments have focused on contingency and operational planning, not least during the first Gulf War alongside me, underground at High Wycombe, and he was then closely involved in establishing the UK’s Permanent Joint Headquarters at Northwood. On promotion to air vice-marshal, he formed the team to establish the Joint Helicopter Command, with 350 helicopters and 12,000 personnel, and became its first Commander in October 1999. He retired from the RAF nearly ten years ago but last September he was appointed as the Air Officer Northern Ireland in the RAF Reserve. He is as qualified as anyone I know to keep us on track today. David - you have control 7 OPENING REMARKS BY SEMINAR CHAIRMAN Air Vice-Marshal David Niven CB CBE BSc Thank you Nigel, although, I’m not sure that I am actually all that well-qualified. I am pretty familiar with the Army post-WW II but I don’t know a great deal about Army Co-operation before that, so I am really looking forward to this conference, as I expect to learn quite a lot. As Nigel has said, we are here to mark the centenary of the formation of Royal Flying Corps and we are going to do it by tracing the evolution of just two of its key functions – roles, incidentally, which have evolved even further over the last ten years or so. But we are not here to study what has happened in the last ten years, nor are we going to consider any of the other functions that are facets of Army Co-operation. So we shall not be discussing air assault gliders, parachuting, airlift, support helicopters or close air support. That is not to say, of course, that they are unimportant, some have already been addressed by the Society and I am sure that the others will be in due course. So, without more ado, let me introduce our first speaker. 8 CORPS RECONNAISSANCE 1914-18 Wg Cdr Jeff Jefford ‘Jeff’ joined the RAF in 1959 as a pilot but (was) soon remustered as a navigator. His flying experience included tours with Nos 45, 83 and 50 Sqns and instructing at No 6 FTS. Administrative and staff appointments involved sundry jobs at Manby, Gatow, Brampton and a total of eight years at HQ Strike Command. He took early retirement in 1991 to read history at London University. He has three books to his credit and has been a member of the Society’s Executive Committee since 1998; he is currently editor of its Journal. Although the aim of today’s seminar is to consider the two earliest operational functions of the RFC – that is to say, permitting the general to ‘see over the hill’ and the direction of artillery fire – and the way in which these were later discharged by the RAF, we should acknowledge that even the RFC of 1912 had its antecedents, so it is appropriate to begin with just a little pre-history. What is generally recognised as having been the first successful powered flight in this country was made by Sam Cody in 1908 and within two years a number of enthusiastic junior officers had begun flying on their own initiative. By that time, and contrary to what is often alleged about the Army’s having a totally dismissive attitude towards aviation, the General Staff was sufficiently interested in the potential of the aeroplane to employ a few, albeit borrowed ones, during the annual manoeuvres of 1910 which were held on Salisbury Plain. It was during these exercises, on 21 September, that Bertram Dickson, until very recently a captain in the Royal Horse Artillery, made what is generally accepted as having been the first military aerial reconnaissance sortie. Five days later, the notable actor/aviator Robert Loraine made the first air-to-ground wireless transmission in this country. These events, and other considerations, led to military aviation being put on a firmer footing with the establishment of the Air 9 Battalion of the Royal Engineers in April 1911. That arrangement lasted only a year, however, and, a Royal Warrant of 13 April 1912 (that will be 100 years ago next week) established the Royal Flying Corps. Its organization was to include a Central Flying School to provide appropriate instruction and No 1 CFS Course was run at Upavon between August and December 1912. It was chiefly concerned with getting folk to fly without breaking their aeroplanes, or their necks, but there was a substantial amount of technical instruction in the workshops and about 50 hours of formal classroom time. Significant among these, from the perspective of today’s seminar, were: Functions of aircraft in war on land 1 hr Map reading 2 hrs Observation of artillery fire 3 hrs Practical navigation 1 hr Formations of foreign armies 1 hr Conclusions drawn from use of aeroplanes on manoeuvres 2 hrs In reality, I imagine that many of these ‘lectures’ will have been more in the nature of group discussions, because their was little practical experience, let alone doctrine, on which to base a syllabus as the military aviation community was still feeling its way. For the manoeuvres of 1912, each side was assigned seven aeroplanes and an airship.