The Empire Air Training Scheme: Identity, Empire and Memory

Australian government, reflected in failure in the 1930s to develop air defence despitethe loud advice of several influential Australians. Politician Billy Hughes, diplomatE.L. Piesse and industrialist Essington Lewis had all seen Australia’s vulnerability andrecommended the development of air power. In 1935, Hughes published Australia andWar Today in which he voiced his belief that air power had revolutionised war, and itwas vital that Australia develop effective air defence. 25 Essington Lewis, who wouldbecome director of munitions during World War II, had travelled extensively in Asiain the 1930s and realised the perilous position of Australia. In 1936 he began tonegotiate for the formation of the Commonwealth Aircraft Cooperation to buildWirraway aircraft at Fisherman’s Bend. This opened in 1939 and would form the basisof Australia’s aircraft manufacturing during the war. 26 In 1935 E.L. Piesse, writing as‘Albatross’, advanced warnings about Japan and favoured the development of airpower to build up Australian defences. 27 He recommended that Australia shouldincrease the spending on its air force. Despite such warnings little was done and inSeptember 1939 the Royal Australian Air Force was far from adequate lacking bothmachines and air power. Such was the situation of aerial defence when World War IIbegan.While technology advanced, new strategies attached to aerial warfare weredeveloped. The two main proponents of the new strategies were British Marshal of theRAF Sir Hugh Trenchard founder of the independent British RAF and Italian ColonelGiulio Douhet. In 1921 Douhet published Command of the Air in which he recognisedthe military potentially war-winning impact of aircraft. His theory was based on twoassumptions. The first was the aeroplane was an offensive weapon without equal. Thesecond was his belief that civilian morale would be shattered by aerial bombardmenton population centres; so wars could be won by aerial attacks on cities.28In thistreatise Douhet contended that modern airpower rendered armies and navies largelyobsolete. Aircraft could simply fly past them to strike at the heart of an enemy. Asdefence of the sky was all but impossible, once air superiority was established an25 W. Hughes, Australia and War Today Sydney: Angus and Robertson. 1935. Chapter Air Defence.26 The Age 27 January 1940, 3.27 E.L. Piesse Japan and the Defence of Australia Melbourne: Robertson and Mullins, 1935, 48.28 Guilio Douhet, The Command of the Air Translated by Dino Ferrari, New York: Coward McCann,INC, 1942, 30.30