The Telegraph Book of Readers' Letters from the Great War (40 page)
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Authors: Gavin Fuller
Faithfully yours,
Winston Churchill, President
E. Cubitt Sayers, Chairman
G.J. Bentham, Parliamentary Chairman
Albert Larking, Secretary
Early Closing Association, 34â40, Ludgate Hill, E.C.4
3 January 1918
SIR â May I draw the attention of your readers to the very urgent need of more women motor transport drivers? The services of so many women are required for this purpose in the Royal Flying Corps that I am anxious to appeal to all women who are suitable to volunteer for this national work. Applicants must have driving experience and be willing to serve where required in the United Kingdom. Application should be made to the Commandant, Women's Legion Motor Transport Section, 13a Pall Mall East, S.W.l
Yours, &c.,
Londonderry
Londonderry House, Park Lane, W.1
SIR â After upwards of three years' war in the air it might not be out of place to consider what has been done and what can still be done by properly directed effort. For the past, we may sum up everything in one sentence â the blunders of our politicians have been retrieved by the heroism of our aviators. It was this heroism and marvellous courage, coupled with the supreme fighting instinct of our youthful âair sportsmen',
that led our generals (often, I fear, not quite accurately) to claim for us supremacy in the air. This was true so far as the actual individual contests went, but, alas! no real effort was made at home to attain such a command of the air as would paralyse the activities of the German army on the Western Front.
It is clear that in 1917 there has been to a great extent equality of material in the air forces at the front. The very mobility of air power involves temporary supremacy at a given spot at a given time for whichever Power chooses to concentrate. For example, when we were the attacking force, as at Vimy Ridge, Mossines and Cambrai, we had the mastery of the air by reason of the invisible concentration which we had prepared; on the other hand, in the case of the German attacks at Lombartzyde, Italy, and the surprise thrust at Cambrai, the mastery passed temporarily to them, and so it must be until one side or the other, by great and persistent manufacturing effort, can present its generals with an overwhelming number of high-powered machines.
So much for 1917, with its lack of imagination and slackness in manufacture: but what of 1918? War on foot is generally ended by the invasion of the enemy's country. All history from the time of Caesar to the Russo-Japanese War teaches this. May it not be the same in the air? Whichever side can effectively invade the other in the air will win the war. Lord Rothermere, our new Air Minister, has, I am delighted to see, spoken out frankly and courageously as to âreprisals', which is only another word for aerial invasion, but let us see to it that the invasion is on the right side. Often we have been
invaded by squadrons of Gothas up to twenty-five in number. True, only a few have readied London, but are not Essex and Kent equally parts of Britain; and we have at last invaded Germany at Mannheim with eleven machines. I disregard altogether mere tactical raids on Belgian aerodromes. They have nothing to do with a strategic effort to end the war. They are comparable only to the cavalry raids of olden time, and have little more real effect.
What then of the future of this year? The war will probably end before the autumn. Germany can hardly stand another winter, but she will make a desperate effort to win in the air by an invasion of England this summer. If she invades London night after night, as she may do, we shall of course put up gallant defence, but the only way to stop her is a counter-invasion of the Rhine towns. We all revere the heroic defence of Verdun two years ago by our French Allies, but what saved Verdun was our counter-attack on the Somme; and what will save London will be our counter-attack on Cologne. Can we accomplish this? I do not mean petty raids of twenty or thirty machines at intervals of ten days, but a real invasion by 100 machines a day, repeated until the dose cures, or rather kills, the patient. I make no attacks or even criticisms; nor do I state publicly what I know of the manufacturing position. I merely ask, can we do it?
Yours, &c.,
W. Joynson-Hicks
5 January 1918
SIR â Mr Joynson Hicks has done national service by drawing attention in your columns to the importance of the air service during the year which is just commencing. Germany has enjoyed one great advantage over the Allies, for Germany has appreciated the fact that the present is a war in which science must play a deciding part, and where mere physical bravery is not as important as in the days of old.
This is especially true in connection with the air service. More attention should be concentrated on the design and development of aeroplanes than has been the case during the last three years. The facilities for research in aeronautics should be increased, but this is not all. The bravest man on the best aeroplane ever designed could, without technical knowledge, accomplish little. Yet at the present time the young men who at eighteen or eighteen and a half are admitted to the Flying Corps have as a rule only received the âgeneral education' provided at the public or secondary schools of the country.
A man who is to become a really efficient pilot should have received before entering the Government service a sound ground in science and in engineering. This fact is fully appreciated by those connected with the Air Council, but the official machine must necessarily move slowly. The only preliminary course specially designed for young men who wish to become pilots in the air service is at the East London College. More facilities for such instruction should be provided.
Even a six-month course such as that alluded to is hardly adequate. A scheme should be devised whereby a combination of special aeronautical training with military instruction is possible. Important as is the design of an aeroplane, the efficiency of the man who is to handle it is no less important.
Yours, &c.,
John L.S. Hatton
East London College, Mile End Road, E.
7 January 1918
SIR â Will you allow me through your paper to thank most sincerely those who so generously responded to my appeal for funds to provide wool for my knitters who are making socks for our soldiers. We have sent out 800 pairs since last August, and have over 400 still to go out, but I have no more wool left now, and socks are ever more and more urgently needed. My knitters, all but one, are voluntary, and many of them working women. They are keen to help, and do splendid work, the blind knitter, to whom I alluded before, having now completed 200 pairs of socks. May I earnestly appeal for more funds to carry on this most necessary work? Wool is getting dearer and dearer. I have the chance to procure a large quantity of excellent wool at a moderate price if only funds are forthcoming at once. The worst
weather is still to come, and socks will be needed in ever-increasing quantities.
Yours faithfully,
Evelyn Templetown
10 Onslow Crescent, S.W.7
8 January 1918
SIR â Everyone who is at all sensitive to the signs of the times realises instinctively that Britain has now reached, and during the next six months will be compelled to pass through, one of the gravest crises of her long and varied history. But, though everyone realises it instinctively, it may be well to state the fact explicitly. Britain has now to face, and will during the coming half-year have to contend with, three perils of unprecedented magnitude, viz., first, the peril of Austro-German attack; secondly, the peril of famine; and, thirdly, the peril of her own Bolsheviks. A word as to each.
A year ago the decisive defeat of the Central Empires appeared certain. The Allies on the Western Front were impregnable in defence and strong for attack; the Russians on the Eastern Front, well supplied for the first time with all the munitions of war, had before them a comparatively easy task in the reconquest of Galicia and Poland. Now, however,
all the advantages secured by strenuous effort and devoted sacrifice have been recklessly cast away by a band of fanatics whose folly has jeopardised the very cause to which they profess supreme devotion. Hence the certainty of the Allied victory has been converted, not by German strength or prudence, but by the feebleness and lunacy of the Leninites, into the grim necessity for a renewal of desperate conflict to escape disaster. The entry of the United States into the war, happily, more than counterbalances the Russian collapse; but not for some months can the might of America fully display itself, and during that critical interval it will rest with the sorely tried veterans who have already stood the strain of over three years of unparalleled warfare to hold their front intact against what will probably prove to be the most desperate of all the onslaughts of the enemy. Of their ability to do it there is fortunately no doubt, provided only that they are adequately and steadily supported and fortified at home.
We at home, however, are faced with a prospect of famine, more near and formidable than has ever faced the people of this country since the close of the Middle Ages. Shall we pass through our ordeal of hunger with the same serene certainty of success as will our soldiers through their ordeal of fire? We ought to do so; for we shall have to bear nothing worse than the Germans have already borne with exemplary discipline and docility for over two years. It would be an everlasting disgrace to democracy if it could not endure in the cause of its high ideals the hardships to which the slaves who seek for world power patiently submit. But the omens are not wholly good. There are heard in our midst baseless or wildly exaggerated cries of âprofiteering', senseless demands for
reductions of prices, ignorant protests against inevitable privations, violent threats in case supplies are not forthcoming. There is thus urgent need that the nation should be told clearly the unpleasant truth, viz., that the customary food is not available on any terms, and that the people should be called to sacrifice and duty.