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(iii) Officers and men should be permanently enrolled in and employed with the Corps and not liable to transfer to other units of the Army except by agreement in each individual instance.
(iv) The uniform should include some emblem or distinctive badge to indicate the specialised functions of the Corps and its association with the Royal Air Force.
It will be for the General Staff to say whether they are prepared to accept the commitment on these conditions.
22. If the Army Council do not wish to assume this responsibility, the only alternative will be for the Air Council to undertake it, which they could only hope to do successfully if generous and whole-hearted assistance were given by the Army, at any rate during the initial stages.
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23. There would undoubtedly be certain advantages, both to the Army and to the Royal Air Force, if the personnel of the Corps belonged to the latter-in this instance the user Service. There are already over 60,000 airmen engaged on ground defence duties, and difficulties might arise over their compulsory transfer to Army Service. Moreover, the attitude of these men to their own particular form of employment is satisfactory. They have thrown in their lot with the Royal Air Force, and are impressed with the vital importance of keeping the air forces in operation by ensuring the security of their bases. Their approach to the problem is therefore right, and as they share with other classes of airmen an intense interest in all the affairs of the Royal Air Force it is not difficult to maintain their morale at a high level.
24. Past experience has shown that Army personnel are not likely to regard the task of aerodrome defence in the same light, and that their morale, training and efficiency tend to be affected adversely by permanent employment on such a duty. This is understandable. The primary rôle of the Army is the conduct of mobile operation in the field, and permanent employment on a form of garrison defence is naturally distasteful. The Young Soldier battalions, which now provide the bulk of aerodrome garrisons, constitute useful pre-military training cadres for the Field Army and are regarded mainly as such. As soon as their personnel reach military age they are drafted away to other battalions. This would probably be necessary even if Young Soldier entrants began their career in units of an Aerodrome Defence Corps, and they would, therefore, have no special or abiding interest in aerodrome defence.
25. The chief difficulties which would be experienced by the Air Ministry in creating an Aerodrome Defence Corps of the kind envisaged lie in the problems of training and in the provision of the required number of suitable officers and N.C.Os and in the supply of the necessary arms and equipment. At the outset a considerable measure of Army assistance would be needed both in the allotment of vacancies at Army training schools and the loan of instructors, and in the secondment of personnel for command. The Royal Air Force is at present seriously short of resources for meeting these requirements. The need for Army help would, however, diminish in proportion to the progress made in training and equipping the Aerodrome Defence Corps.
26. Should it be considered the best arrangement for the Corps to be formed and administered by the Air Ministry, the Air Staff would feel that they were discharging an additional commitment which was appropriate to the Service responsible for land warfare and one which would not have arisen at all if it were not for the need to maintain air operations unchecked by interference from enemy airborne troops. They have no desire to stretch out for wider spheres of activity on their own account, or to derogate in any way from Army responsibility for the conduct of land operations in general. Indeed, they would press for a senior Army Officer to be lent to take control of the whole organisation of the Corps, to guide and advise them as to the policy which the Army consider should be followed in aerodrome defence, and to act as the link between the War Office and the Air Ministry in this respect.
27. Finally, should the danger of attacks on our aerodromes by enemy land forces, whether airborne or seaborne, recede eventually to a point where the strength of the Aerodrome Defence Corps exceeded essential requirements and
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