THE CHINA MAIL, SEPTEMBER 25, 1941.
CHINA
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 Nazi 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. 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
RUSSIA
PASSING IT ON.
'Eagles" Of The R.A.F.
It is, of course, impossible to, a proud tradition dating from the naval and mercantile have state exactly how many Ameri-last war to live up to. also met and thrown back cans are how flying Spitfires and For the Squadron was formed Hurricanes from British bases. last October under the honorary the challenge of the Axis But an indication of the number command of Colonel Charles fleets. And now British who would like to was given in Sweeney, veteran of many cam- paigns, and organiser of the Es- cadrille Lafayette of fliers which, during 1914-18 brought down 99 German
the Canadian Air Force.
Nearly every man of those ac-
sea-power faces undis-New York as long ago as March. Then, it was stated that since mayed the possibility that July, 1940, 3,000 American pilots a new, a numerous and an had applied to join the R.A.F. and unnecessary enemy may wantonly present itself in the Pacific. On her fleet Britain knows she can rely in any war.
cepted asked for a chance to "have a smack at the Nazi" from the cockpit of a fighter plane, but a
'planes.
American the war of
Ideal Leader
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
Canada claimed Instructing in
hundreds. Others took
job the responsible ferrying American 'planes across from factory to
some
of
"For
wrote on safety," Coke in the 17th century, the Atlantic or "they are the most de-airfield in Britain. fensive walls of the realm." If many people, sions in the R.A.F. Volunteer Re- some of them in respon-serve, a spread-eagle badge on the right arms of their uniforms, and sible positions, placed too
The "cream" of the volunteers found themselves with commis-
-By-
A.P. Luscombe
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 war, the
re-
airline pliot.
Taylor is an ideal man for the
ing. Finding himself in England at the outbreak of war he promptly resigned from the U.S. Marine Re serve. Then he joined the Fleet Air Arm, and served in the air craft carriers, Glorious, Argus and Furlous, later transferring to the R.A.F.
All the volunteers arrive in Britain
filers, as experienced some with hundreds of hours' flying behind them. Still, they need training as fighters, aft though they do not have to un- dergo the four, gruelling staget. of training which are needed to turn an inexperienced lad into an R.A.F. pilot.
So keen are Americans that several have dived after Nazi raiders while still in the training stage. It was-on such a fight, 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 "a really brilliant pilot "natural":”::
He spotted a Nazi plane before he had been in the air five min utes. Instead of diving away to safety, as he was fully justified in doing, he waded in to tackle the far more experienced enemy.
The Americans' keentess is ex- emplified by the story told by: another young volunteer who gave up his job in a Hollywood
fight in France. Aft studio to many adventures and setbacks he
reached Paris while a heavy-rät was in progress, and for the next few weeks he was seldom out of
A
other volunteers, he started a long Paris was evacuated, and with trek. In crawling, jammed trains, by car and on root, they made. their way to Tours, to Bordeaux, to Bayonne, to St. Jean-de-Luz. Bombed every day, often without food or water, sometimes, even starving, they wore their boots off their feet, but their enthusiasm still burfied, strong.
return tickets to America-but Among the "foundation mem-the young volunteers would have
attitude was a time when a particular-job. He came to the Squadron with danger..
ample experience of wartime fly- never fully shared by the ly insidious appeal for a fighting services. For the breathing-space was be- Navy offence in any situa- ing made, in the last sum tion, whether outnumber- mer of last year, that Sir ed or outgunned, has al: Robert Vansittart ways been the secret of minded us of the vicious successful defence. In the habits of the German During the first year of war the number of American volun- air it has been plane for butcher-bird. The brain- teors in the R.A.F. Increased to →plane and bomb for bomb fever-bird also figures in
such an extent that "It was de:
Fought In Battle cided to form an entirely until now the RAF has the repertory, as third-
separate squadron, manned and
Finally, after a nightmare, three- soared to mastery of the degree diplomacy to! commanded by Americans.day sea trip with only dog-biscuits daylight air, has clipped weaken potential Nazi vic-
So, just about at the height or to eat, the volunteers reached the Battle of Britain, the Eagle England.. the wings of the Nazi tims abundantly testines. 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 f the cuckoo have long bero of the Squadron was every none of them. Within a few days, territory The___army, been the subject of ser- type of fler. Amateurs, airline their sheer determination hnd chained at first to the lous study in Berlin. Iran pilots, crop dusters" (the men found them commissions, in the
who prevent disease from spread-RAF 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 nost to have suf- them with insecticides from the sent to an Officers Training Unit, air); stunt pilots and parachutists, relates the Hollywood man. Hete, wherever the opportunity fered the laying of Ger- ex-Army and Navy filers; a film after 20 minutes in an advanced* was given it a bold initia-man eggs, but its geográ, Worker. Many had given up good straight into a Spitfire Twenty tive which one day will be phical situation made the lobs 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 PWard, pilot-owner of R.A.F. station in the south of much nearer to the eagle's one of peculiar peril to a small Tennessee airline, who England for several weeks Antil nest.
India and her western had sold up his business to join training.
up; John Coen, dx. U,S. Army. The German eagle has neighbours. The destruc-pilot, who find resigned his job as a school-teacher Bill. Hall, a number of disguises. tion of the Nazi brood was abush pilot from Alaska who Cooing like 2 dove In a duty clearly laid upon round the world's hardest flying times of difficulty has be Britain and her Russian and 19-year-old. G. A. Daymond, come second nature to it, ally, and they have re- already experienced as a crop his first he secured two 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 was unable to claim them
as kills.. dron's youngest fighter. what gutteral rencule- it.”
star's secretary, a finance house trainer plane, he was put
country insufficiently exciting,
was just in That volunteer time for the Battle of Britain. Ha brought down his first "cort," a Dornier bomber, on Beptem ber 15, that great day when 186 Nazi, 'planes were downed, That was his second fight. On pro-
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