COMBAT AND COMPETITION.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

CHAPTER EIGHT IN A QUANDARY
in the broader training context. Those were complementary skills, which
could be added on as required. Perhaps the time had come for
Tactical /Army Support OTUs and frontline units to combine the
functions of fighter recce and ground attack. The Typhoons of 146
Wing had demonstrated the idea, at least in part, with their photo recce
sorties, and the concept appeared to offer many advantages.
Flying on ops. This was the moment of truth. Of challenge and
uncertainty. Of the need to belong and be accepted. Of fear and
fulfilment and the subtle awakening of squadron pride. A time to learn
as much and as fast as possible, from your fellow pilots, and from
every sortie. To be possessed by a determination to help the ground
troops who were fighting such a bloody war compared with your own.
For this was the way to success.
And success it certainly was. The evidence is there, in the war
diaries of the Typhoon Wings, from Normandy to Schleswig Holstein
and eastwards to the Elbe. It is recorded for all time in the signals
from ground commanders at every level. Close support really
worked.....
Even so there were many lessons to be learned. VCP/FCP* and Cab
Rank, so often thought of as the ultimate in army close support, was
less used in Western Europe than might have been expected.
The reason was simple. Keeping aircraft on standing patrol,
waiting for orders, was inefficient and wasteful. In theory at least Cab
Rank was reserved for situations involving a brief and highly
concentrated succession of strikes. Such as might be required to support
an attack, or to break up an enemy counter attack. In practice these
conditions hardly seemed to apply. It was all rather confusing!.
'Rover', the system used in Italy4 , was a definite step forward. Each
formation was briefed for a target before take off. On arrival overhead
they made a single orbit, allowing the controller time to divert them on
to an alternative (Cab Rank) opportunity, and this would take
immediate priority. No call from 'Rover' and they attacked the original
target.
Cab Rank could be very effective, but sometimes there were
problems in pinpointing and identifying the target - to a greater extent
than on other missions - in the absence of good 'close in' navigation
features. There could be other confusions, with artillery marking using
coloured or white smoke. And the enemy was not above adding to the
difficulties by putting down his own decoys. Although it reduced the
element of surprise, there was surely a case for air to ground
121