[RodM]

Hi,

a very emotive issue....

With these rather bold and defamatory statements:

...and no self-respecting airman would accept that as part of his job description, which was to bomb German civilians until morale cracked.

Anyone who talked to the Army about their needs was a traitor. Beaverbrook oredered the Vengeances, and the RAF ensured they were never used - except in the East where they became a raging success such that the RAF had to suppress the information and quickly scrap them before their embarrassment became public.

...prove it!

I am sure that the Fairy Battle may also have proved to be a 'raging success' in the Far East, away from enemy fighters and really strong ground defences, but everyone knows what happened to these aircraft over the European battlefield...and I would expect that this, along with the fate of the Stuka over England, had a profound effect upon the RAF's way of thinking about the survivability rates of any form of close support aircraft.

And that viewpoint goes against the British Army's continual cry for an effective dive bomber to support their efforts; arising first in France, Greece, Crete and in the Desert.

Wanting is one thing, but winning the air superiority (and the resources that this entails) for such aircraft to survive in France, Greece, Crete et al in 1940/41 is another matter...


Rod