Antoine,
*Wilfred Rhodes Freeman* Many thanks for the link to the review of the Garry Campion book. Much enjoyed the comment by Vice-Chief of Air Staff, Wilfred Freeman: The historical precedents for self-congratulatory celebrations in the middle of a war are not very happy. Belshazzar held a banquet while the enemy were outside his gate: he lost his throne the same night. . . Wilfred Freeman is one of the forgotten heroes of the Second World War. The only time he is mentioned in WSC’s War Memoirs is when he was invited to accompany WSC to the Atlantic Charter meeting with Roosevelt in 1941. I have just read the detailed entry for Freeman – Sir Wilfred Rhodes, first baronet (1888-1953) – in the ODNB (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography). Extremely interesting fellow – older and wiser than most of his contemporaries. From the ODNB entry: - He learned to fly in France in 1913 - He joined the Royal Flying Corps in active service in France in August 1914 - On one occasion he was forced to land in enemy territory. For two days he successfully avoided German search parties, finally swimming the River Aisne to return to his squadron unscathed. - Posted to 9 squadron in October 1914 he quickly displayed a keen aptitude for the technical capabilities of military aviation. - Promoted lieutenant-colonel, he commanded the Tenth Army wing during the battle of Arras in the spring of 1917. - Commanding the Ninth Wing, his squadrons actively participated in the battle of Cambrai in November 1917 and in operations against the German offensive in March 1918. - Awarded the DSO in 1916, and the Légion d’Honneur, he was thrice mentioned in dispatches. - Spent the inter-war years in training appointments with the RAF Staff College, posted to Trans-Jordan and Palestine 1930-1933. - Promoted Air-Vice Marshal in July 1933. - In April 1936 he was appointed to the Air Council as the member for research and development. - Closely involved with the development of the Wellington bomber, the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, and radar. - He was directly responsible for placing the first production orders for the Supermarine Spitfire, the Short Stirling, the Handley Page Halifax and A.V. Roe’s Manchester (which later became the Lancaster bomber). - Promoted full Air Marshal in 1938, Freeman was given the responsibility for aircraft production as well as R&D. - While being responsible for expanding the production programmes of the Spitfire, the Hurricane, the Wellington bomber and the Merlin engine, he also emphasised the importance of aircraft development, actively encouraging the development and production of Whittle’s jet engine and the De Havilland Mosquito, one of the outstanding aircraft in the years 1944-45. - In May 1940 he had been promoted Air-Chief Marshal earning this tribute from Beaverbrook as “the man who, more than anyone, gave the Royal Air Force the machines whose superior quality won the vital battle of the summer (1940).” (Cited in D. Richards *Portal of Hungerford *page 218) - As AMDP (Air Member for Development and Production) he ordered in 1940 a single-engined fighter from America, the Mustang. He also arranged for the Merlin engine to be built in the USA. Freeman persuaded the American authorities to produce the Mustang-Merlin on a massive scale. This remarkable aircraft entered service in 1944, immediately establishing air superiority and inflicting crippling losses on the Luftwaffe. - Freeman retired from the RAF in October 1940; appointed chief executive of the Ministry for Aircraft Production. Under his leadership, the development of the jet engine was accelerated. - When Freeman finally relinquished his position in 1945 (at the age of 58), Britain’s first jet fighter, the Gloster Meteor, was in full production, and the jet bomber the Canberra had been fully developed. - The author of the entry on Wilfred Freeman in the ODNB concludes without exaggeration that Freeman’s energy, determination and decisiveness played a vital part in bringing victory to the Allies. A biography of Freeman was written by A. Furse in 1999 *Wilfred Freeman: the genius behind allied air survival and air supremacy, 1939-1945*. Jim On 15 March 2011 23:41, Antoine Capet <[email protected]> wrote: > The CERCLES team (University of Rouen, France) is pleased to announce its > monthly series of reviews of books on the English-speaking world. > > http://www.cercles.com/review/reviews.html > > Of particular interest to ChurchillChat subscribers in the March 2011 > series : > > Garry Campion. The Good Fight : Battle of Britain Propaganda and the Few > (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010)-Reviewed by Paul Addison, University of > Edinburgh > http://www.cercles.com/review/r47/Campion.html > > Next series : mid-April > > Professor Antoine Capet, FRHistS > Head of British Studies > University of Rouen > Mont-Saint-Aignan 76821 (France) > > 'Britain since 1914' Editor, > Royal Historical Society Bibliography > [email protected] > > Reviews Editor of Cercles > http://www.cercles.com/review/reviews.html > > ============================== ================= > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "ChurchillChat" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] . > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/churchillchat?hl=en. > > -- Jim Lancaster [email protected] 00 33 2 33 43 52 48 (France) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ChurchillChat" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/churchillchat?hl=en.
