THE CHINA MAIL, SEPTEMBER 25, 1941.
CHINA MAIL
WINDSOR HOUSE ==
CLIPPING THE EAGLE
"Never was an eagle known to swim!” Such was the taunt of the Baltic city of Stralsund three centuries ago, when an Imperial army failed to reduce it. Sea-power preserved Stralsund; and to-day, if the moulting season has reached the Berchtesgaden eyrie un- expectedly, British sea- power has something to do with it. Ranging the waters with bombs in its claws, the Nazı eagle was tempted to believe that webbed feet had gone out of fashion. That was a mistake. Sea-power has survived the threat from long-range bombers.
TO
RUSSIA
"Eagles
PASSING IT ON.
It has survived in relentless] struggle the threat from U-boats beneath the sur- face. It has survived "secret weapons" such as the magnetic mine, new craft such as the small, fast E-boat, new tactics such as massed air at- tacks on ports. In just two years of a war for which Britain was woefully un- prepared, her ships both naval and mercantile have! It is, of course, impossible to a proud tradition dating from the
slate exactly how many Ameri- last war to live up to. also met and thrown back cans are now lying Spitfires and For the Squadron was formed from British bases, last October under the honorary the challenge of the Axis Hurricanes
But an indication of the number command
Colonel Charles fleets. And now British who would like to was given in Sweeney, veteran of many cam- sea-power faces undis-New York as long ago as March. paigns, and organiser of the Es-
Then, it was stated that since cadrille mayed the possibility that July, 1940, 3,000 American pilots fliers which, during the war of a new, a numerous and an had applied to join the R.A.F. and 1914-18 brought down 99 German
the Canadian Air Force.
'planes. unnecessary enemy may Nearly every man of those ac- wantonly present itself in cepted asked for a chance to "have the Pacific. On her fleet Britain knows she can rely in any war.
" Of The R.A.F.
"For safety,"
a smack
of
Lafayette of
Ideal Leader
American
at the Nazi" from the cockpit of a fighter plane, but a The actual Commanding Officer large proportion had to be con- of the Eagle Squadron is Squa: tent with less spectacular jobs. dron Leader W. E. G. Taylor, son
claimed Canada Instructing in
some
hundreds. Others took
wrote, on the responsible job of Coke in the 17th century, ferrying American 'planes across
the Atlantic or from factory to
"they are the most de-airfield in Britain. fensive walls of the
The "cream" of the volunteers found themselves with commis- realm." If many people, sions in the R.A.F. Volunteer Re- some of them in responserve, a spread-eagle badge on the right arms of the uniforms, and sible positions, placed too
A.P.
By
All the volunteers arrive in Britain as experienced, filers, some with hundreds of hours', flying behind them. Still, they need training as 'fighters, al though they do not have to un- dorgo the four gruelling étages of training which are needed to turn an inexperienced lad into an R.A.F. pilót,
So keen are Americans
that several have dived after Nazi raiders while still in the training. stage. It was on such a flight, in bad, cloudy weather, that one of the first Eagle pilots lost his life. He was 23-year-old E. E. Orbison from Oklahoma, described as really brilliant pilota 'natural'."
He spotted a Nazi plane before he had been in the air five min- utes. Instead of diving away to
Luscombe safety, as he was fully justified in Whyte
much emphasis on that ment will be turned on of a U.S. army officer, ex-member word defensive in the again in the final hour of of the U.S. Naval Air Service, ex- first few months of the Nazi defeat. But it was at
airline pilot.
R.A.F.
During the first year of war the number of American volun- teers in the R.A.F. Increased to such an extent that it was 'de oldód to form an entirely separate squadron, manned and
manned commanded by Americans
doing, he waded in to tackle the far more experienced enemy.
The Americans' keenness is ex- emplified by the story told by another young volunteer who gave up his-job in a Hollywood
studio to fight in France. Aft many adventures and setbacks he reached Paris while a heavy rai few weeks he was seldom out of was in progress, and for the next
danger.
Paris was evacuated, and with
Fought In Battle Finally, after a nightmare three- day sea trip with only dog-biscuits So, just about at the height of to eat, the volunteers reached
return tickets to America—but
bers of the Squadron was every none of them. Within a few days,
Taylor is an ideal man for the war, the attitude was a time when a particular-job. He came to the Squadron with never fully shared by the ly insidious appeal for a ing. Finding himself in England at other volunteers, he started a long
ample experience of wartime fly- fighting services. For the breathing-space was be- the outbreak of war, he promptly trek. In crawling, jammed trains,
resigned from the U.S. Marine Re- Navy offence in any situa-ing made, in the last sum-
by car and on foot, they made serve. Then he joined the Fleet their way to Tours, to Bordeaux, tion, whether outnumber- mer of last year, that Sir Air Arm, and served in the alt- to Bayonne, to St. Jean-de-Luz
craft carriers Glorious, Argus and ed or outgunned, has al-Robert Vansittart re- Furious, later transferring to the food or water, sometimes even Bombed every day, often without, ways been the secret of minded us of the vicious
starving, they wore their boots successful defence. In the habits of the German
off their feet, but their enthusiasm still burned- strong. air it has been 'plane for butcher-bird. The brain- 'plane and bomb for bomb fever-bird also figures in until now the R.A.F. has the repertory, as third- soared to mastery of the degree diplomacy to daylight air, has clipped weaken potential Nazi vic- the Battle of Britain, the Eagle England, the wings of the Nazi tims abundantly testifies. Squadron had its badge approved Here their Embassy produced night-birds, and thrust And finally the tactics by the King. back the front over enemy of the cuckoo have long Among the "foundation mem- the young volunteers would have territory. The army been the subject of ser- type of flier. Amateurs, airline their sheer determination had chained at first to the ious study in Berlin. Iran pilots, crop dusters" (the men found them commissions In the French system of passive is by no means the first ing among crops by spraying Three of the volunteers were: defence, has since shown foreign nest to have sufr), stunt pilots and parachutists, relates the Hollywood man. Here, them with insecticides from the sent to an Officers Training Unit, wherever the opportunity fered the laying of Ger-o-Army and Navy dlers, a alg after 20 minutes in an advanced was given it a bold initia- man eggs, but its geogra-worker, many had given up good straight into a Spitfire. Twenty tive which one day will be phical situation made the jobs in their eagerness to fight hours' flying in the fighter, and repeated on a larger scale situation thus provoked In a recent contingent was 30-he found himself attached to an
year-old P. Ward, pilót-owner of R.A.F. station, In the south much nearer to the eagle's one of peculiar peril to a small Tennessee airline, who England for several weeks final nest
hrad sold up his business to join training. India and her western up; John Coen, ex US Army That volunteer was just in" timp for the Battle of Britain. The German eagle has neighbours. The destruc-pilot, who had resigned his job
number of disguises. tion of the Nazi brood was as a school-teacher Bill Hall,He brought down his first "cort, pilot" from whoa. Dornier bomber, on Septem Cooing like a dove in a duty clearly laid upon round the world's hardest Aylag ber 16, that great day when 136 times of difficulty has be: Britain and her Russian country Insufficiently exciting: Nazi planes were downed.
and 10-year-old G. A. Daymond, That was his second aght. On come second nature to it, ally, and they have re- already experienced as a erop his first he secured two "pro- and doubtless that some-fused to be diverted from duster in South Africa and bables", but by the strict R.A.F South America, now the Squa- rules is unable to claim them what gutteral rencule- it.
dron's youngest fighter...
as kills.
who prevent disense from spread-R.A.F.
star's secretary, afinance house, trainer'plane, he was put
of
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