The Men who Flew the Hawker Hunter by Martin W Bowman

Author:Martin W Bowman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / Aviation
Publisher: Pen and Sword Aviation
Published: 2021-06-09T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

Into The Remote Places

As long ago as 1918 the ability to switch aircraft rapidly from one front to another convinced airmen and the more enlightened politicians, of the vital need to retain the control of aircraft under one authority in order to exploit their inherent flexibility to the maximum. Hence the concentration of the various elements of Britain’s air power into an independent Royal Air Force. The wisdom of this step has been demonstrated time and time again, but nowhere more convincingly than in the vast area covered by Southern Arabia. The Middle East Command, which never possessed more than a handful of squadrons, stretched for more than 3,000 miles from Dar-es-Salaam in the south to Kuwait in the north. For years the command was never without operational activity in some part of its territory and yet, its few squadrons were always to be found at the seat of the trouble. Taking 8 Squadron as an example; with its modest complement of sixteen aircraft, it operated in Kenya, Somalia, Eritrea, Aden, Oman, the Gulf and Kuwait, all within a few months. This was true flexibility and typical of the way in which the various squadrons in the Command were switched with great rapidity from one danger spot to another… At times the men of the Middle East squadrons must have become very irritated with the speed with which they were being moved around their Command and the effort involved in servicing their aircraft with inadequate facilities in appalling heat. But they were, had they known it, establishing the true flexibility and versatility of their Service and building up experience of inestimable value for the future.

Air Chief Marshal Sir David Lee CE CBE, AOC Air Forces Arabian Peninsular (later Air Forces Middle East) from 1959-1962, in his conclusions to the effectiveness of post-war air operations in the Middle East.

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