Aeroplane September 2017

ABOVE:

Waves of RAF

Dakotas stream in

over Netheravon

during the

paratroop-dropping

phase of Exercise

‘Longstop’.

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Ben Dunnell explores The

Aeroplane’s outstanding archives

to cast new light on past stories

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A

s of 1947, Britain’s airborne

forces and its military

air transport fl eet were

straddling two eras. On the

one hand, they had at their disposal

capabilities that were soon to become

obsolete: troop-carrying gliders,

for example. On the other, while

new aircraft like the Handley Page

Hastings were still to enter service, the

likes of the Douglas Dakota and Avro

York remained very capable, as would

be proved the following year when

the Berlin blockade demonstrated the

growing Soviet threat.

‘Longstop’ was the name given to

what The Aeroplane called “the largest

airborne exercise since the end of the

war”, staged at Netheravon, Wiltshire

and Brize Norton, Oxfordshire,

on 22-23 September 1947. “Seven

hundred men, their guns and jeeps,

on the end of parachutes make a very

impressive sight. Equally impressive is

the speed with which the present-day

mobile staging post for the forward

air supply of the army is established.

We know, because we have seen for

ourselves.”

This was in some ways rather

more of a demonstration than an

exercise, although it did fulfi l military

training purposes. It took place

before “a 3,000-strong gathering of

Army, Navy and Air Force offi cers,

the military and air attachés of

practically every country in the

world and representatives from

home and overseas commands in

the RAF”. Distinguished visitors

included the Secretary of State for

Air, Philip Noel-Baker, Chief of the

Air Staff and Marshal of the RAF

Lord Tedder, and Field Marshal

Lord Montgomery, then Chief of

the Imperial General Staff. Given

the mutual antipathy between

Tedder and Montgomery, one can

presume that they spent little time in

conversation...

The scenario involved showing

“how an airborne assault into an

enemy territory is planned and

executed, followed by ground

operations for establishing an air

base on [a] captured enemy airstrip”.

For this purpose, The Aeroplane

described, “Salisbury Plain was part of

the semi-civilized country bound to

‘Blueland’ by a military treaty. Because

of an ineffi cient and ill-equipped

What was at the time the biggest airborne exercise mounted in

Britain since the war took place 70 years ago

‘LONGSTOP’

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