1941-05-31 — Page 5

NANCY

ENTRANCE

TO THE MOVIES!

HMM

HERE COMES

ANOTHER ONE!

Saturday, MAHONGKONG TELEGRAPH

May 31, 1941.

By Ernie Bushmiller

WE PUT

WHAT'S WRONG, SLUGGO ?-- ALL. YOUR CUSTOMERS

ARE COMING OUT

DIZZY!

D' FILM

IN: UPSIDE DOWN!

T the head of the

A Fighter Command sits

Air Marshal Sholto Douglas- obviously a thinker and yet a man of punch and enterprise.

I think of him, if he will for give the comparison, as the spidor in the centre of a web.

The policy and spirit of the Fighter Command emanate from him and spread down

the threads of the web to all the units under his control.

He inspires the urge to new

struments. training and technique,

p.141 brolled Pandore Bružinska

THU, AN, DEMAN HAMAs mostrand

Begin to-day this striking series by Air Commodore P. F. M. Fellowes, D.S.O.

Behind the Scenes of the

FIGHTER COMMAND

developments in material, in mand. Now let us see, as I have mance than the enemy, as we methods seen recently, how the organisa- had last August and September, War is always like this be tion works.

Let us take one or two instan- tween two highly efficient op He encourages or holds back when necessary the heads of ces and follow them through ponents. his various departments, just as from the Unit to the Head- they, in turn, control their quarters, and then to the Air

Ministry and the Cabinet. various stalls,

Our Day Sweeps

U9.

yourself can have no idea whatever where you are.

Unless you hnd wireless coin- munication with the ground and could be led back to your acro- drome, you would almost certainly crash, losing your neroplane, and possibly your life.

The same thing, of course, ap- plies, with even greater force, at night.

In the black-out, even on a clear dark night, a fighter is, to all intents and purposes, completely blind.

He has to fly, to a very large ex- tent, by his Instruments, with his hend in the cockpit.

Few people seem to realise This makes it especially difcult that training can be carried to for him to see the very faint indica such a pitch that the actions and ground to enable him to recognise tions which might appear on the reactions of human beings to the area of country over which he is instruments can become com- travelling, pletely automatic.

Therefore, he must have wireless communication, 01 some wireless

It is to this pitch that we have method of homing to his own aero- to get our fighter pilots if they drome. If this fails he must crash. are going to act perfectly under

You see, then, that the import-

+

can be

the high emotional stress which ance of expert weather advice, con- they experience in aerial combat slantly at the disposal of the officer at night,

controlling operations, cannot be ex- aggerated, The sub-conscious self, fully Unless the aerodromes trained, does not panic or lose guaranteed (so far as such a thing its head, whereas the thinking can be done in regard to so uncer- or conscious self docs. The aim tan a factor as our weather) to in training the fighter pilot is to fighters cannot be ordered off the remain clear and free from fog, the eliminate, as far as possible, the ground. need for the thinking self to function.

Imagine yourself sitting in an insruments which are to guide aeroplane, looking only at the you towards the enemy.

.

At the beginning of this war, our fighters were armed entirely with the self to be highly effective." light machine-gun, which proved it-

Gun Power

There must always be periods Headquarters, in fact, is a Imagine that a Squadron has complete world of its own, sub- set out to perform a mission and when the enemy obtains a slight

Since then, the enemy has, to a divided into smaller worlds that it has met with complete technical advantage over

Suddenly, you realise that you large extent, armoured himself. Wo Operational, Training, Adminis- annihilation (a very improbable We get to work and reverse the

are very close to him. You look have therefore had to adopt a heavier trative, Meteorological, Person- supposition from the British situation.

away and out, trying to readjust automatic. nel, Stores and Supply, Housing point of view, but it has already

Now, last autumn we had so your vision (redilate your pu- Both Germany and Italy had arm- (Works and Buildings), Medical, happened to the Italians).

much experience in day air pils), and you see, not illuminat- ed themselves with these heavier Religious and yet more depart-

guns prior to the war-but by so do- The missing Squadron Com- fighting, both against the fight- ed instruments, but a black

ing had gained no advantage, as we ments.

mander would not himself be er and the bomber, that it was bomber.

had not then gone in for armour in que aircraft to any extent. Immediately in contact with able to report. The Station possible to settle on a long-term

You may be travelling at 100 this great organisation, and Commander must then investi- policy of development,

miles faster than the bomber, The advantage of the light -above-it,-are-the-Air-Ministry gate, as far as he is able, all the

That policy-is-progressing, even-if-you-are-going-in-the-bers in which they can be used. It machine-guns Des_in_the_large_num-. and the Cabinet, both of which, circumstances surrounding the and we shall shortly have the same direction and it may be is not always necessary to be may demand at any moment event.

pleasure of seeing its results. that he is visible, even with accurate shot to secure results. action or information.

He gives his views on the

perfectly adjusted eyes, only up I think they will be unplea- to 300 yards away. You can weapon are that it will pierce arm- The advantages of the heavier And radiating from Head- mass of detail available in re-

work out for yourself the time pur and it will obtain results at a quarters there are the various gard to times, fuel capacity, sant to the enemy. Fighter Groups protecting this ammunition supplies, age of At the moment, as the Press this gives you to see him and to long range. machines, experience of Squa- has reported, we are carrying open fire. drou Commander and pilots out day sweeps over France,

factors all the multifarious which might affect the situation.

country,

1

Above And Below

He forwards his report to his

Each of these Groups has an organisation similar to that of A.O.C. the Headquarters Command, but of course in miniature.

All the different branches of

the Group, from their own Each is presided over by an special aspects, amplify and officer through whom the spirit criticise this report. of the Air Officer Commanding- in-Chief is filtered down and Their omnibus report is pass- perhaps modified in certain local ed on again, under a similar pro- ways.

cess, to the Commander-in- Chief's Headquarters.

:

Below the Groups are the Station Commanders, and below them come the Squadron Com- manders.

The Squadron Commander has a very small staff, but deals personally with every question affecting his own men,

He is able to act in a more intimate way than that which is open to the higher commanders.

A

It is dealt with also by the departments concerned in the Air Ministry-and out of all the conclusions may arise a new Fighter policy.

These are not carried out in

Fighter Brains

an

The heavier guns, however, have the disadvantage of greater weight, and a very much smaller number of rounds of ammunition per gun, with a consequent need for greater accur ucy in alm.

All the same, it has already been proved that these heavier guns can,

such a way as to use up.any If you had been properly serious proportion of our air trained you would not have got power, but they do have very yourself into this position. important effects of keeping You would have behaved in a with a good burst of 50 to 00 rounds, the Germans constantly on different fashion, so as to avoid literally knock an enemy machine the alert and of making them the sudden change over from to bits in the air. изе up a lot of petrol and the lighted dials. You would not The rate of fire of the heavier gun wear out many engines. have over-shot your enemy.

Is probably between two and three hundred rounds a minute, and the Before we were doing these. To overcome this difficulty, the fighting range between two and five are now Atting some of hundred yards. The number of sweeps it was quite possible for Germans

their Aghters with strong head- rounds carried by our enemy is prob- Flying Officer Schmidt to make lights.

ably under a hundred rounds per a date with his girl a fortnight:

Run. ahead to go and see the flicks. If you now imagine yourself in the

enemy machine, you will see Now,, probably, he is not need for speed in anything the figh- allowed to leave the aerodrome ter docs, because if you suspect his But guns are not the whole story. at all in case the hated Englan- avoiding action, perhaps of the most forget the men behind them.

presence you will instantly take I discussing them, we must never der appears..

drastic kind.

This might be of such im- This must have made quite a portance that it would have to difference to Mr Schmidt's en be reported. to, and discussed joyment of life. by the Cabinet before it was finally put into practice.

the

For example, you might stall and dive, perhaps for 6,000 feet. To follow this manoeuvre on Ftl dork night, the fighter pilot would have to

Winning Spirit

I would say, that there is 110 finer creature in the world than the full-out fighting pilot. Each time he goes into action he offers his life to his country with verve and real enthusiasm..

Even so, he becomes tuned up to

take him hours after he has arrived on the ground to "unwind."

But, of course, the subject be a superman with a super-lastinct. These examples give you some which is occupying the brains of little idea of the need for practice Or here is another example: the Fighter Command most and the development of n technique such a state of exultation that it may He probably knows intimate Our aircraft might discover closely is almost certainly the in night fighting. details about every officer and that the German aircraft had defeat of the night bomber by man in his Command. In- in some way improved their per- the night fighter.

My recent glimpses of the Fighter This, of course, acts as a drain en Command convince me that we have his nervous system and he must be, deed, it is essential that he formance in such a degree that should acquire this knowledge we were no longer on an equality instruments for this work, and

some very the brains indeed con- and is, rested at the proper Intervals. Even with the most perfect stantly working at this problem. if he is to get the full value with them.

The spirit in our Fighter Units as I have witnessed It recently can be So far as I know at the moment, hest described as that of quiet con- out of his Command.

the most tremendous applica- In fact, this has actually hap- tion, drive and purpose, this of either single-senter, two-seater or

we are not committed to the policy fidence. He also leads his Squadron in pened recently in regard to the task cannot be hustled into per- three-sealer night fighters, but ex-In fact, they respect him--but they They do not despise their enemy the air, in actual fighting-as performance of enemy fighters fection without prolonged trial perience will soon sort out for us the know that he is not their equal. docs the Station Commander at extreme heights. At the and experience.

type which can best do the work. when the whole Wing goes into moment, they have a, better per

His method is different from theirs. the air.

Whichever we choose, it will re. He believes in sudden attack with n formance at extreme heights For instance, it is pretty main limited, by day or night, by its quick get-away. Our pilots go in generally known that our me reliance on wireless communication, and kay in, until the enemy is de- It is not possible for higher than ours have. Commanders to attempt to do

thods of contacting night bomb- It must always be rather like a goat fealed. this, although in their past his up through the channels I have detectors and radio Intercom-

Immediately this news comes ers are by means of wireless on the end of a string. tory they have all had great outlined, action is taken which munication between ground, and experience in air. fighting.

quickly reaches the highest air. tochnicians in the country.

Let me put it this way, This means that, our people get mixed up in a dog fight by day, You are in a fast fighter, and you The result is thut, very short in the air have to be trained in in moderate visibility.. So much for the complex ly, the tables will be turned and the use of new instrumonte- organisation of the Fighter Com- we shall have a better perfor quite a number of them.

How It Works

Radio Help

When the fight is over" and you maybe..near your fuel. Umit: you -

MONDAY,

Air Commodore Fellowes will deal with

THE BOMBER COMMAND

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Saturday,

HONGKO