AIR CO-OPERATION

Evening Star, Issue 24012, 10 October 1941, Page 6

AIR CO-OPERATION

ARRtY MANOEUVRES IN BRITAIN VALUABLE LESSONS LEANED (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, October 8. Squadrons of the Royal Air Force and the Army, in co-operation with the Bomber and Fighter Commands, have been taking part in the greatest army exercises ever held in Britain—the military aspect of which has been already described. These large-scale manoeuvres, which have just come to an end over a vast area in Britain, were planned to test the proficiency of land and air forces operating under conditions approximating as closely as possible to those likely to arise on active service. For the Royal Air Force they provided the opportunity to learn useful lessons in cooperation with the Army, and the results of the experience gained throughout the exercise, in which an invader was eventually beaten off, are now being studied by Army and Air Force commanders. Many of the squadrons were allocated to the “ enemy,” and others worked with the British. They consisted of bombers, fighters, reconnaissance, and troop-carrying aircraft from which parachute troops were dropped at various stages of the battle to disrupt communications and cause confusion behind the lines. Together these squadrons carried out considerably more than 1,000 sorties—bombers dislocating railways, roads, troop concentrations, mechanised units, tanks, ammunition dumps, and aerodromes, and fighters diving low on columns of men and all kinds of transports as if raking them with machine-gun bullets and cannon fire. Reconnaissance pilots brought back reports for Army headquarters on the movements of the invaders and defenders, and photographed objectives in the territory of the opposing forces. Not the least important aspect of the manoeuvres was a practice in mobility for Army Co-operation Squadrons. These squadrons are accustomed to moving with the Army formations to lyhich they are attached, but in an exercise of this magnitude they have been able to obtain a clearer idea of the role they will play if British and German ground forces again become engaged. Many of the pilots, officers, and airmen of the Army Co-operation Command served with the British Air Force in France from the outbreak of the war until Dunkirk and after. Now their squadrons are constantly occupied in military exercises with the Army. Their additional training in the operations of the past week has been a valuable test of their general ability to move quickly from one base to another and of the efficiency of the arrangements to deal in particular with equipment, stores, ammunition, communications, food supply, and transport required by a unit which may bo ordered to a new location at very short notice. Attention was also paid to the effectiveness of camouflage, since the squadrons are often temporarily stationed on an emergency aerodrome. To check the speed of their “ getaways ” the pilots and crews of bombers were timed from the moment the squadron received instructions to attack a target until the last of their aircraft took off from the ground. Immediately on their return the ground staff, all wearing steel helmets and equipped! with anti-gas and other equipment, swiftly refuelled,_ rearmed, and “ bombed-up ” the aircraft in readiness for the next assignment as the pilots and crews reported to the liaison officers on the result of. their missions. Fighters and reconnaissance aircraft wore similarly timed and prepared for further sorties, and umpires made notes on the accuracy of the pilots’ work. The use of secret methods .for assuring rapid air support for Army units meeting with enemy resistance was another important feature of the manoeuvres. Empire as well as British personnel took part in the exercise both with the friendly and the “ enemy forces. Moreover, 'while bomber crews who bomb targets in Germany now found themselves attacking imaginary targets in Britain, fighter pilots who shot down Nazi aircraft over France a few days earlier were swooping over British troops and. transport columns with such good effect that heavy casualties would have been cahsed had the fighters’ guns been in action.

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