ThomasP
Senior Master Sergeant
Ran across this website the other day. It has records and minutes of the UK parliament meetings.
"https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commo...-2e6e-43de-9a5f-7f7b732b68bd/AirEstimates1936"
I stumbled across this Air Estimates meeting minutes of particular interest.
from Sir Philip Sassoon's Statement 17 March 1936
". . . This is, indeed, a melancholy reaction from the high aspirations with which the Disarmament Conference opened at Geneva four years ago. As the House well knows, the inexorable logic of events has left His Majesty's Government no option in the matter. We were compelled to set in hand last year an urgent programme for the rapid and extensive development of the Royal Air Force. . . . As a result, the metropolitan squadrons will ultimately be increased to 129, with a first-line strength of approximately 1,750 [aircraft]. The actual defensive and offensive power of the Home Defence Force will, however, have been augmented far in excess of this numerical increase. In addition, a further 12 squadrons are to be formed by 1939 for duties overseas. That will make a total of 37 squadrons outside these islands. All these figures exclude the Fleet Air Arm which is to be increased by 27 first-line machines in 1936 and on a much larger scale in 1937 and 1938. By the end of the financial year 1936 the first-line strength of the Force will have been doubled in the short space of two years. . ."
I have not had a chance to go through the files there to any degree, but presumably there are other records that would be of interest to the members of this forum.
"https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commo...-2e6e-43de-9a5f-7f7b732b68bd/AirEstimates1936"
I stumbled across this Air Estimates meeting minutes of particular interest.
from Sir Philip Sassoon's Statement 17 March 1936
". . . This is, indeed, a melancholy reaction from the high aspirations with which the Disarmament Conference opened at Geneva four years ago. As the House well knows, the inexorable logic of events has left His Majesty's Government no option in the matter. We were compelled to set in hand last year an urgent programme for the rapid and extensive development of the Royal Air Force. . . . As a result, the metropolitan squadrons will ultimately be increased to 129, with a first-line strength of approximately 1,750 [aircraft]. The actual defensive and offensive power of the Home Defence Force will, however, have been augmented far in excess of this numerical increase. In addition, a further 12 squadrons are to be formed by 1939 for duties overseas. That will make a total of 37 squadrons outside these islands. All these figures exclude the Fleet Air Arm which is to be increased by 27 first-line machines in 1936 and on a much larger scale in 1937 and 1938. By the end of the financial year 1936 the first-line strength of the Force will have been doubled in the short space of two years. . ."
I have not had a chance to go through the files there to any degree, but presumably there are other records that would be of interest to the members of this forum.
