1941-02-10 — Page 7

CHINA MAIL It Takes Months To

"WINDSOR HOUSE

THE BLACKMAILER

It was announced in London the other day

Train A Pilot

and

William By

Gibbons

himself with the particular bomb-There's no flying; no excitement

Inler er plane he is to fly.

It

But

that the British govern-IT was once raid to me that our ple flying in a single-engine 'plane,

he advances to the pilots had a "superiority com- ment had agreed at the

First Lessons "personal request" of Pre..plex" when they went up either to mediate Training Squadron.

is here that he undergoes the most tackle Nazi raiders or go off on

Yes, simple it may seem. a period of sident Roosevelt, to pass bombing expeditions. Machine for vital training over

it was a fairly even many weeks. They are weeks of what does it all entail" Before the food and clothing for machine.

match! but man for man, the Bri- full hours, a revival of school aspiring airman is admitted to the children in unoccupied tish pilot had a decided pull. class-room days that mean ma- Service he has to go through a France, provided that it

triculation to the next and high-stiff medical examination. Nerve est college of R.A.F. preparation, tests are carried out-sharp raps with a hammer on nerve centres was distributed under the

in the legs, arms and stomach. direct supervision of the

•American Red Cross. So safeguarded, this is not

I asked the reason for this "Be- cause our boys have a souch more through schooling, I was told. accepted that explanation. And of now, having watched gonte. there hays being put through the matt

am qlute convinced. Only a few hours at at R.A P. an unreasonable arrange-running school suffired to show me ment. In so far as the much hard work has to fo

dene by these potential pilots be- ere they earn their coveled wings, From the time they get into um- form and are taught the rudiments of flying to the stage when they have graduated, it

1 be long

It asn't just the knowledge of

thing that an RAF pilot "must

and the thousand-and-one details.

A Stiff Course

American supplies can be

for substituted

what would otherwise have to be alloted to the French children, they provide the Nazis with just that much

Retire. That Would be rela- additional resource Stively simple. No, he must learn wherewith to blow British the whole alphabet of aeronauties children out of their beds, inclu to prolong the horrors of the Polish pogroms, to blast Greek peasants into fragments and to carry on all the other cultural ac-¡

Be- tivities of the Axis. cause the issue is pre- liminarily one of humani- tarianism, one cannot neglect the essential hu man factors involved.

It training extends over

of

The nos tee has to pass through a stiff

pesod eight mouths. curriculum before he becomes a qualified pilot.

Having passed his medical test, he is posted to an initial training wing where for eight weeks he

is drilled into a fil man and at- tends lectures-but 30 flying. When he leaves he feels he is cut! out for the jub.

So, on to the Elementary Fly- ing School, where he puts in 50 nours. His bent is soon discovere

either

{"

ir

as a fighter graded bomber pilot-ur a failure, which case he has an opportunity of going into another section of

the Service.

Thus far, he has learned sim-

The twin-engine 'plane is mas- tered, and the airman, now vir- tually a qualified pilut, goes on to the Operational Training Unit for his final instructions to familiarise

Now to the real business. Or is it? The Initial Traming Wing may be a little boring

any but the most enthusiastic student.

PRACTICAL LESSON for our airmen-a class in progress

R.A.F. training school.

10

Can Italy Feed Her

Happily, however, they by the instructors, and he is are unlikely to bulk large under this particular plan. With Red Cross supervision, it seems proß- able that whatever sup- plies are sent will not only reach

for the children whom they are intended,! but will in the main be a supplement to rather

substitute for die than what the children are now receiving. Careful- ly limited as it is, the arrangement

а

does,

HILE recent food restrictions will not cause the Italians to from hunger, nevertheless they are sufficient to make life uncomfortable."

People?

What is the truth behind this engaged on foreign service. newspaper report?

broke

on

foot

in Two months before the wai

out I walked fact, appear to offer a through Northern Italy. Let me it means for getting a maxi-ecord what I saw, compare mum amount of relief to with the few facts that have since leaked through to our Press, and the most poignant victims try to draw an accurate, balanced of the Nazi terror while

much of the Το begin with,

very affording a minimum of land is divided into

farmed by # aid toward the prolonga-holdings

such households family. From tion and intensification all the available young manhood

If was already in uniform of the terror itself.

conclusion.

small

single

Fertile Land

old

The soil is cultivated by women, old men, young boys and children from the early ages of eight and nine.

And the hours they work? Well, we were on five o'clock in the morning to

at an

porting through these three forms of carbohydrate, protein and fat. Three years ago the wheat crop was inadequate to produce good bread, which was consequently diluted with corn flour, making it heavy and indigestible, though it must be admitted that it gave a sense of repletion!

about it.

Comes the next stage when the men have their first taste of flying in

aircraft, light service lectures on simple navigation, air- manship, engines, and theory of flight. That, of course, embraces the mastery of the controls-rud- der and "joy stick.”

It is the combination of these controls that is an important part of the teaching.

The first lessons learned, the pilut goes

Intermediate to the Training Squadron, where he Inerts a twin-engite 'plane for the Arst time. He must polish up his airmanship, "road" man- ners in the air, and learn how to get the best out of his craft, which alone forms it distinct study.

Then there's night flying. He must know how to request per- mission to hod, and how to do it and what to do in the case of forced landings. There are the principles of reconnaissaner work, bombing, the use of machine-guns, and meteorology, in addition to the highly complex subject navigation,

of

One of the most interesting "teachers" I saw at this school was the link trainer, in which the pupil has ten hours blind fly- ing ang blind landings. The size of a small car, with wings and rudder, the link trainer, is static, with all the controls and instru- ments of un aeroplane,

Tricky Controls

The pupil is thus taught by in-

He struments how to fly blind. sits in the cockpit and operates the cuntruls as he would in the air. If the "joy stick" is pulled too far back, the speed indicator will fall until the speed at which the 'plane would stall is reached. And if the rudder is incorrectly moved, the instruments will show that the "plane" is in a spin!

The "course" of the pupil is re- corded on a chart by an instru- ment coupled electrically to the "plane," and this reacts to any operation made by the pilot. All the time the instructor is in com- munication with the airman by microphone,

Bombing calls for a high note of accuracy, and the airman has attaining this an opportunity of through the mediuni of the boinb-sighting apparatus. As you probably know, when bombs are height of, say, dropped from a 10,000 feet, they are not released when the plane is directly over In the winter of 1938-1939 one | of the major defeats of Musso-speed of the aircraft and the wind the target, or they'd miss it. The lini's regime was on this ques- must come into the reckoning, and tion of bread, when riots among

here the all-important bomb the population forced the Govern-

the road atment to improve its quality. But Sights come into it.

it was still bad in the summer

evade the midday sun: we passed

By K.R. Walford

The pupil has a sight in a dark room at the training squadron, of 1939, and the

"war prosent

arranged over a movable map, af consists of a mixture of

and on the instructions of his As a corn, rice and maize flour.

a bomb on result diseases of malnutrition teacher he "drops"

a target, and a sinall light records girls already singing in the fields, and epidemics of typhoid are in- the hit, or miss, as the case may We swung our packs in the late directly referred to by the pre- as long all the large, loose, senti-go as June, 1939, lounging at evening: old women, old men and sent Italian Press through para-hours of this ground instruction

everywhere

every corner, and is now actively

children were

work.

at.

And the land itself? The in- plements and stock?

graphs of advice on their treat- ment. So much for wheat.

Little Meat.

be. Altogether, the pilot has 20

before he bombs from the air, and here again he has no mis- siles.

Ready For Battle

in

mental schemes for "feed- ing Europe" had been con-

Owing to a system of small ceived with an equal care French children free and

agricultural credits, which has A new hardship has been add-

There are several courses and an equally realistic safe passage, for example, flourished for 30 years, the landed this winter. Authoritative re- appreciation of the fac- of British

had been scientifically developed ports inform us that the olive oil navigation in the air. The first is children to

and is consequently very fertile crop this year has been a remark- a flight across country, solo, to an tors involved, they might America. But it never oc- Mainly divided into small plots, ably poor one. Not only are both aerodrome 100 miles away and have accomplished far curs to anybody to sug- every inch is frugally cultivated oil and its substitutes now ration- back; the second a cross-country Boneath the abundant fruited, but the price has increased triangular flight of 200 miles, with more in terms of actual gest that some such ar- trees flourish rows of vegetables, from six to fourteen lire a quart, the pilot, steering the course and human welfare than they rangement should be leguminous crops and small fruit; thus placing it beyond the reach the navigator directing him; the not a foot is left untended. High of quite a large percentage of the third is the same as the first, ox- have accomplished. made a part of the plan. up the steep Ligurian mountains, population. It seems safe to as cept that at least 250 miles are

of olive sume that a diet of at least a part covered; the fourth, a skeleton · Here is a plan within It never even enters one's plateau upon plateau

groves are carved from the dour of the working people will be de-map flight of 200 miles over a

ficient in fat this winter..

triangular course, and the fifth the realm of the practical head that Britain might hillside.

But the instruments are very The only crops that seem to the same as the fourth, but of 300 and the genuinely hu-use the kind of blackmail

crude: hand tools; single ploughs; hold their own, both in quantity miles..

Meantime, the pilot has put in mane, and Britain has in human misery which light, mufe-drawn carts; very and quality, are the leguminous

plants, boans and peas. These armament practice-25 rounds at acceded to it. Perhaps it the Nazis have brought to little large-scale machinery.

And the animals are poorer will probably provide Italy's chiet range firing a camera and cina

gun, not bullets!-formation fly- is no more than any civil- a high art. So every one still. The inevitable goat seems protein this winter.

the In the last war, the major Itat-ing, which demands intense con- ised government would busies himself in plans to always rapaciously hungry,

ribs of the draught mule staro iam defeat, the battle of Caporet-centration, as you can well im- have done. But one can- pay off the Nazi black through its hide as it is flayed to to, was lost, not through inferior agine, learning the construction not help noting that Bri- mailer, meanwhile letting exert more energy; where horses mintary prowess, but because the and maintenance of his aircraft, and cows flourish on the occa-soldiers were suffering from a studying meteorology, so that he Nazi bombs fall tain, in affording this the

sionally larger farms their condi-deficiency of vitamin B, and there. I may be able to anticipate weather for the changes, radio telephony, and relief to French children, where they may on those tion varies, but seldom can they fors had "no stomach

signalling. But the civil population, as By now he is the proud pos- is asking nothing in re- too old-fashioned to resort be said to bloom; and every blade tight."

of grass is eaten flat,

That is the picture that meets well as an army, works "on its wessor of his wings, and randy for the traveller on foot. Hardship, stomach." Uniess by military the final phase of his training. At hard fare and hard work such as conquest the Italian armies can the Operational Training Unit, he England has not seen in this reinforce the food front at home, has to undergo advanced bombing generation.

those old men, women and child- | and gunnery instruction, and se= Wheat; beans and olive oil are ren that compose her agricul- custom himself to the type of the staple home-grown foods of tural population will either be plane he is going to fly in battle Italy. It is part of Fascist autar- unable to carry on or may-the culmination of months? In-

tensive study and schooling. chy to make the country self-sup-spring a surprise on the world.

turn. Our own children to such methods.

are being bombed and In Hitler's infinite per- blasted, mangled physical-ception that ordinarily de- Ty and mentally. Britain cent people would react in might well insist on mak- this way lies a chief rea- ing the price of help for son for his successes.