War Between the Services

One of the most articulate and acidulous opponents of a separate U.S. Air Force is Rear Admiral Harry Ervin Yarnell, U.S.N. (retired). Arguing his case in Collier's last week, Admiral Yarnell told a horrendous tale of manslaughter committed by the R.A.F. and the Italian Air Force (both independent) through ignorance of military and naval matters. Excerpts: > "Forty-eight hours before the Germans actually invaded Norway, R.A.F. scout planes saw transport ships churning through the North Sea. Only mildly interested in the phenomenon, they reported it through routine channels. . . . Had the pilots been wise in naval matters, wise enough to understand what they saw, England would have known two days earlier of the German movement.

> "One group of ships loaded with evacuees was supposed to pick up its R.A.F. escort a few miles off Crete. . . . The R.A.F. escort arrived ... on time, but the ships weren't there and it returned to Egypt. The Navy tried furiously to get the air group back, but it was futile and the ships, completely exposed, were bombed two-thirds of the way to Alexandria. . . .

> "In the western desert, the R.A.F. attacked a caravan of vehicles, destroying considerable supplies of gasoline. Too late, the attackers learned they fought their own troops. . . . Near Bagdad, in Iraq, the R.A.F. actually attacked British ground forces. Such episodes contributed to the flat statement by one high-ranking British officer in the Middle East cam paign: 'I will not go into action again unless I am able to give direct orders to the air squadrons allocated to my support.' "

> Of Italian air stupidity the Admiral also had something to say: "On Oct. 11, 1940, Italian planes sighted a British naval force near Sicily, heading west. The observers reported the force consisted of one aircraft carrier and several destroyers. A small contingent of warships came out to attack the weak force--and discovered that in reality there were two cruisers in the group. Before the Italians could get their heads from the lion's mouth, they had lost three ships. . . ."

"Pure dishwash," snorted the British, of R.A.F.-directed criticism, although British anti-aircraft batteries are known to have shot down R.A.F. planes at night. As for the Italians, the British had an even better story to tell of their ignorance.

When Air Marshal Italo Balbo was shot down in Libya last year, there were persistent rumors that he was killed on orders from Italian higher-ups (TIME, July 8, 1940). Correspondent Gordon Sinclair of the Toronto Star last week quoted Air Commodore Raymond Collishaw, R.A.F. Commander in Egypt at the time:

"Far out in the desert some of our British armored-car men were lost and dying of thirst and starvation. . . . They were in terribly bad condition. Balbo, who was of impulsive and generous nature, heard of their plight and got into a bombing plane, took an escort of two fighters and personally flew to the rescue of these British soldiers. Having picked them up, he flew the troops to an Italian hospital, then started back to Tobruk; his head quarters. . . .

"At the moment when he came back over Tobruk our forces opened a bombing attack on the town, a queer coincidence. Our men were bombing from 20,000 feet and Balbo flew in at 2,000 feet. . . . When Balbo came over, an Italian cruiser in the harbor . . . opened fire and struck the Marshal's plane with a direct hit. . . . All this talk about him having been betrayed into an ambush was utter rot. . . . He was really a first-class chap . . . and I'm glad of a chance to clear this business up."

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