Skip to main content

Royal Air Force

Volume 391: debated on Wednesday 14 July 1943

The text on this page has been created from Hansard archive content, it may contain typographical errors.

Airman's Death, Canada

10.

asked the Secretary of State for Air whether any action has been taken against the persons responsible for the death, through the effects of a toxoid inoculation, of a member of the Royal Air Force serving with a training unit in Canada?

A report on this casualty has been called for from Canada, but has not yet been received. When it comes, I will communicate with the hon. Member.

Air Raids (Anti-Aircraft Guns)

12.

asked the Secretary of State for Air whether he is aware that, in the recent raid on a town, of which he has been informed, anti-aircraft guns did not open fire until the raid had been in progress for some considerable time; and, in view of this, whether he will take steps to improve the lialson between Fighter Command and the anti-aircraft guns?

The guns were in action within our minutes of the beginning of the attack. The delay was due not to inadequate liaison between Fighter Command and the anti-aircraft guns but to the need for extreme care owing to the presence of our own aircraft in the area.

Is my right hon. Friend taking any steps to see that there is co-operation between the Air Ministry and the sounding of the air-raid warning?

No, Sir, I do not think that co-operation could be closer; but there is a real difficulty when hostile aircraft come over an area where our own friendly aircraft are operating, more particularly when they do so in small numbers.

Would it not be advisable to instruct our own aircraft not to come in over a city like Hull, which is constantly in danger of enemy raids, so that the guns could at once open fire on enemy aircraft?

I do not think my hon. and gallant Friend realises how large is the area to be protected and that there must be large numbers of aircraft operating up and down such an important part of the coast as the Hull area.

Officers (Promotion)

15.

asked the Secretary of State for Air whether the present system of promotion of officers by commands, instead of centrally by the Air Ministry, has proved satisfactory?

The powers of commands to promote officers are limited to the grant of acting rank, up to that of wing-commander, to fill vacancies in approved establishments, in the absence or pending the posting of officers of the appropriate substantive or temporary ranks.

Does my right hon. Friend not think that this system tends to a certain rigidity and may prevent an interchange of officers between commands where it might be desirable?

No, Sir, I do not think that that is so. The system applies only to acting rank, and if there should be another officer of the appropriate rank who was qualified for that post he would be removed from another command to that post under this arrangement.

Does my right hon. Friend not consider that the present decentralisation is desirable?

Balloon Command (1939–43 Star)

16.

asked the Secretary of State for Air whether personnel who have served in operational squadrons of Balloon Command, continuously, since 3rd September, 1939, will receive the 1939–43 Star?

I would ask my hon. and gallant Friend to await the statement which my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister proposes to make before the Houses rises.

Would my right hon. Friend give an assurance that everybody who has had a uniform of any sort whatever will have all the decorations that are available?

"Royal Air Force Journal" (Editor)

17.

asked the Secretary of State for Air by whom and on what grounds the editor of the "Royal Air Force Journal" was selected?

The editor of the "Royal Air Force Journal" was selected in October, 1942, under my authority by the appropriate branch of my Department. As for the second part of the Question, I would refer my hon. and gallant Friend to the reply which I gave to the hon. Member for Everton (Mr. Kirby) on 18th November last.

In view of the fact that this publication is widely read by thousands of our young men and women in the Air Force, would it not have been possible from among the hundreds of literary gentlemen who have joined the Air Force to have selected someone who has not been convicted of publishing indecent matter?

Of course, it would have been possible to select another officer besides the one who was appointed. This one was appointed as long ago as 1942, and since his appointment the paper has prospered and given satisfaction.

Air Crews (Commissions)

18.

asked the Secretary of State for Air what proportion in each of the following categories, pilots, observers, navigators and air-bombers, hold commissioned rank?

On 31st March, 1943, the latest date for which figures are available, the percentages of commissioned personnel in the air-crew categories of the Royal Air Force were: Pilots, 56 per cent.; navigator classes (including observers), 37 per cent.; air bomber, 27 per cent.

I would ask my right hon. Friend to take into account, when he is considering a greater commissioning of N.C.Os. and air crews, the fact that if N.C.Os. are killed in action, their dependants get a lower rate of pension because they are N.C.Os.

No, Sir. The only rule which could guide me in authorising the commissioning of N.C.Os. would be the interests and efficiency of the Service.

Would the right hon. Gentleman not agree that in the case of pilots the proportion of those commissioned is altogether too low, bearing in mind that the pilots are captains of aircraft and frequently have to carry that responsibility as sergeants, which causes embarrassment?

No, Sir. There is no limit on the number of commissions which could be given to pilots or to other members of air crews.

Airwomen (Duties)

20.

asked the Secretary of State for Air whether he is aware that on a Royal Air Force station of which he has been informed, a corporal of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force is employed to supervise the sweeping of floors and other menial tasks performed by skilled tradesmen; and whether he will issue instructions for the practice to be discontinued?

All airwomen at the Royal Air Force station referred to are required once a fortnight to assist, under the supervision of a W.A.A.F. non-commissioned officer, in cleaning the corridors of their hostel. In addition, they are required to attend to their own rooms, but no other duties of this sort are required of them. I consider that these arrangements, which are general throughout the Service under similar circumstances, are economical in man-power and reasonable in themselves, and I see no reason why they should be discontinued.

Is the right hon. Gentleman not aware that the supervision of, shall we say, a 40-year-old stockbroker by a 19-year-old woman corporal of the W.A.A.F. is something which might cause much discontent?

That is quite a different point from any which the hon. Member raised in his Question.

Dive-Bombers

21.

asked the Secretary of State for Air whether, in view of the adoption of the Mustang as a dive-bomber, and the supply of the American Vengeance dive-bomber to the Royal Air Force, which are being operated in Sicily and Burma, respectively, he has now abandoned his former hostility to this form of aircraft for its specialised purpose under proper conditions?

The inference of the hon. Member is not correct. It has always been the view of the Air Staff that effective use can be made of the dive-bomber when operated under favourable conditions.

That is rather different from the reply which the right hon. Gentleman gave on previous occasions, when he said that there were no dive-bombers.

I must ask my hon. Friend to look at my speeches before he makes an assertion of that kind. I have frequently stated that the dive-bomber is an arm of opportunity. The opportunity may be rare, but it is a good thing to have the dive-bomber to take advantage of such opportunities.

Why, if the Air Ministry have always been in favour of dive-bombers, is it only now, after four years of war, that they are coming into operation?