The R.A.F. and the Army
The relationship of the Royal Air Force to the Army in the field is so intimate that the problem of achieving complete and harmonious co-operation without sacrificing the identity, and to that extent prejudicing the esprit de corps, of the R.A.F., is so difficult as to admit of no ideal solution. The arrangement announced on Wednesday re- presents what should be not merely a good working com- promise between opposing claims, but as good a compromise as could be found. A new command, including all the units of the R.A.F. in France, has been formed, under Air- Marshal A. S. Barratt, who will be responsible for co-opera- tion between the R.A.F. and both the French Air Force and the British Army. Under this arrangement no part of the R.A.F. in France will any longer be under the bomber command in Great Britain. The command in France is re- sponsible to the Air Ministry; part or all of it could, there- fore, be recalled at any moment in the event of a mass attack on Great Britain. Part will still, as at present, be under the operational control of Lord Gort. The new arrangement, therefore, largely regularises the existing situa- tion, but it disposes of proposals for detaching part of the R.A.F. in France completely and transferring it to Army direction and administration. The whole relationship of the Army and the Royal Air Force is discussed by " Strategicus " on a later page.
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