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Veterans Tales

The German commander in South West During the latter part of the 1917 in the history of air power”. This second
Africa was a Colonel Francke, who had summer, there was growing resentment report represented a paradigm shift in
led General Botha a merry dance around among the British populace regarding conventional and accepted thinking. Air
the country. The arrival of the aircraft British air defences. London was being Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup said in late
revolutionised Botha’s intelligence gath- bombed at will, and it seemed to Smuts 2005 words to the effect that the thinking
ering, and he remarked to van der Spuy that every moonlit night brought a raid, contained in this second report were so
“For weeks I haven’t known the where- which he watched from the balcony of his far reaching as to be difficult for tradi-
abouts of Francke, now I can see for room at the Savoy Hotel. tionalists to comprehend.
hundreds of miles!”
In July 1917, the War Cab-
inet delegated two of its
members to investigate the In this second report, Smuts suggested
issues of 1. home defence that air power should have an offensive
against air raids and 2. the role, not just a defensive one as was
existing organisation for Britain’s practice at the time. Due to the
the study and higher direc- groundbreaking nature of what he was
tion of aerial operations. suggesting, Smuts drew a parallel with
The members chosen were the role of artillery, saying that “artillery
Smuts and Prime Minis- was a weapon, an instrument ancillary
ter David Lloyd-George. to a service, but one that could not be an
Lloyd-George made it independent service itself”.
clear that he had little or
On July 9 1915, Francke surrendered at no expertise, the Welsh were cola-miners He went on to elaborate:
Otavifontein, the campaign was ended, and wonderful singers after all, and left
and with it came the end of the South the Commission to Smuts “Air Service on the contrary, can be used
African Aviation Corps. All the mem- as an independent means of war oper-
bers who volunteered were seconded General Smuts tucked into the as- ations far from and independently of,
to the Royal Flying Corps, and formed signment with his customary vigour, both Army and Navy. As far as can be
into No. 26 (South African) Squadron and within two weeks on 19 July had presently foreseen there is absolutely no
which was deployed to German East produced his first report, which recom- limit to the scale of its future independ-
Africa where Gen Smuts was trying with mended four courses of action; ent war use. And the day might not be
limited success to vanquish yet another far off when aerial operations with their
wily German adversary, General Paul von 1. Concentration of Executive
Lettow-Vorbeck. Command under one senior officer of
high ability
In 1917, having run around the veld in 2. Immediate concentration and
then German East Africa in a vain at- disposition of AA guns
tempt to corner the German commander, 3. Rapid completion and training
General von Lettow Vorbeck, Smuts was of air squadrons to fight in formation,
sent by Louis Botha to London to attend and
the Imperial Conference in March of that 4. Provision of sufficient air-de-
year. fence units to cope with the attacks on
London
At the end of the Imperial Conference,
the British wanted Smuts to stay in Eng- It should be noted that at the time, the
land. The man who a scant 15 years pre- Royal Flying Corps occupied itself with
viously had been fighting the British with matters on the Western Front, while the
vigour in South Africa was deemed now Royal Naval Air Service concentrated devastation of enemy lands and destruc-
indispensable to them and for a few rea- on the Channel. To add to the chaos, tion of industrial and populous centres
sons; the Irish question or problem, the the “Army and Navy had on order 9483 on a vast scale may become the principle
problem of the Turks in Palestine and the aircraft of 76 varieties and 20000 engines operations of war to which the older
Palestine question itself, and the fact that of 76 kinds”. forms of military and naval operations
he was a unique asset to the War Cabi- may become secondary and subordinate.
net being the only member with combat The recommendations were accepted in In our opinion there is no reason why
experience. As matters turned out, Smuts toto by the War Cabinet and implementa- the Air Board (which was a joint service
declined the Palestine command, made tion instituted. Gen Smuts however, was committee) should any longer continue
a trip to Ireland under the alias of John not done, and on 17 August presented a in its present form and there is every rea-
Smith where his contribution is still further, even more radical report. This son why it should be raised to the status
recalled with gratitude today, and did in- report, known as the “Smuts Report” of an independent Ministry in control of
deed join the War Cabinet, which brings has subsequently been described by Air its own war service”
me to the Royal Air Force. Vice Marshal Tony Mason in 1986 as
“the single most important document In essence, Gen Smuts said that Britain

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