11. 17 To give the Army wings
Despite the deepening winter before the end of November Sir Hugh had organised a visit to what was now being called ‘The Central Landing Establishment’ at Ringway airfield near Manchester. As CAS Sir Hugh thought it of great importance that he should visit this newest branch of the British Armed forces as soon as possible. As he saw it his visit had two main functions, One, was as a fact finding mission, so that he could see for himself not only the progress made so far but also asses the problems that the new service was facing, secondly, His visit was to demonstrate the commitment of the RAF to the needs of the Airborne Forces and to show that the new service was being taken seriously by the AM.
The visit started in the morning with Sir Hugh and his party being greeted by the officer commanding the RAF Contingent, shaking hands with Wing Commander Louis Arbon Strange, DSO, DFC and Bar. Sir Hugh congratulated Louis on the recent award of a bar to his Great war DFC , this bar was awarded for flying a damaged and unarmed Hurricane (an aircraft type he had never flown before) back to the UK as France fell. Wing Commander Strange then introduced the senior RAF officers of the school before the party set of to the airfield to watch a demonstration parachute drop. For this every single instructor, qualified officers and parachute troopers were required which was explained to Sir Hugh on the way. Shortly after they arrived at the air field perimeter the sound of aircraft engines began to fill the air. The lead aircraft came as a surprise to Sir Hugh, as the familiar shape of a big four engine Armstrong Whitworth Ensign hove into view. Wing commander Strange turned to Sir Hugh and stated that 'yes this was the same aircraft used by Fighter Command to ferry ground crews during the Battle of France and the Battle of Britain' but Sir Keith Parks had released it to the new Landing School for trials just a couple of weeks earlier. As it swept across the airfield the first of the Paratroopers were seen to jump from the portside rear door, By the time twenty two parachutes were open the aircraft had covered the full length of the field, the next aircraft was another surprise as the Armstrong Whitworth W23 prototype hove into sight, again the Wing Commander turned to Sir Hugh and stated that this had been acquired from Air Refuelling limited by 'means unknown' some weeks earlier. Twenty two more parachutes blossomed behind this aircraft. Next came three Armstrong Whitleys flying in close formation. From these aircraft came a total of thirty more paratroopers in this case appearing through a hole in the fuselage floor previously occupied by a ventral turret. The Last flight of three aircraft were De Haviland Flamingos. From each of these aircraft twelve parachutists depended having exited from the portside door. As the last plane flew out of sight the paratroopers were observed as they gathered up their parachutes. An Officer detached himself from the assembling troops and doubled over to the watching VIPs. Snapping to attention he threw up a smart salute to Sir Hugh and was introduced as Lieutenant Colonel Rock the Commanding Officer of the British Airborne force. In a brief conversation Colonel Rock welcomed Sir Hugh and at the same time excused himself from not greeting him at his arrival by stating that it was important that he jump with his men and he hoped that Sir Hugh had found the spectacle of interest. Sir Hugh's reply was not recorded though it had been noted earlier during the demonstration drop that Sir Hugh was making frequent asides to his ADC, who was then making notes in a small Filofax.
With all the introductions completed Colonel Rock led the party over to the two training hangers. Here Sir Hugh was able to observe the training regime in progress. The various types of apparatus were explained to him and their use demonstrated. Further demonstrations were given of troops using the various aircraft fuselage mock-ups to practice exiting the aircraft. The use of the Whitley bomber mock up with it’s hole in the floor clearly showed to Sir Hugh the innate unsuitability of this method of egress from aircraft for the rapid deployment of fully equipped paratroopers. The morning finished with a general tour of the rest of the base facilities ending at the officers mess where lunch was served.
Sitting with Lieutenant Colonel Rock to one side and Wing Commander Strang the other Sir Hugh was seen to spend most of the time listening whilst he lunched. As the meal ended Rock announced that all officers were to assemble in the Lecture Hall immediately. Where Sir Hugh would address them.
The gist of Sir Hugh's short address was that the progress they had made so far was impressive but it was obvious that they needed a lot of special equipment and time to learn to use it. Like the RAF two decades earlier as a completely new force the Airborne would have to forge their own identity, Traditions and ethos. He finished by saying that as the CAS he pledged his full support to their endeavours.
Later Back in the Wing Commanders office Sir Hugh, Strang and Rock, with the ADC still taking notes, spent the afternoon discussing the future requirements of the Airborne force. Sir Hugh was quick to point out how slow the current aircraft dropping methods were at delivering paratroops and how dispersed their landings would be. Looking at a Battalion establishment of around eight hundred all ranks, then to drop them would take around twenty Ensigns, or Forty W23’s and the best part of eighty Whitleys or Flamingos. Discussing this, Sir Hugh had ventured that ideal aircraft would be a W23 type but with doors both sides capable of delivering a stick of twenty four men in the same drop area that a Flamingo could deliver twelve would be advantageous.
This capacity was about the same as the DC4 that was being touted in some circles for purchase from America but would have the advantage of dropping it’s paratroops with half the linear dispersal.
Turning to air landing troops in gliders Sir Hugh saw the advantage in that a single glider gave in the depositing of a group of soldiers with their heavy arms as a concentrated group. To deliver a Battalion size force would require about thirty gliders of the intermediates size as in the X29/40 specification and of course thirty tugs and crews to tow them. Additionally a few larger gliders would need to be allocated to provide transport for essential supplies on the landing field.
Sir Hugh could see that the amount of RAF resources that would be required to support even a single Brigade size force of around five thousand men as demanded by Churchill would be a major commitment and would mean robbing Peter to Pay Paul. In that there was not the capacity as yet to supply the aircrew or aircraft needed to fill all the tasks the RAF was being tasked to do. Ultimately this allocation of resources would be primarily a political one taken by the Prime Minister and the War Cabinate. Sir Hugh’s immediate task was to have plans in place to fulfil whatever options the Government pursued and to be able to give informed counsel to help guide those decisions