Separate forces
Sir: My father's career in the RAF included the Battle of Britain, but if alive today he would have been amused by Anthony Leigh Mallory's assertion (Letters, 22 August) that the RAF should 'move on' from those times and amalgamate.
From 1961 to 1963 he was assistant chief of the Defence Staff. Fresh from running the School of Land Air Warfare, he chaired the working party to unify the army, navy and air force. As the Times said in its obitu- ary of Donald Evans, it was 'a step resisted by less flexible senior officers', and failed. The process of unification was championed by the chief of the Defence Staff, Lord Mountbatten. Sadly not even his influence could overcome the three forces' internecine tendency.
Plus ca change. . . . Or perhaps a child- hood ditty, not condoned by Donald, will suffice: 'The army's barmy, the navy's crazy, the best of course is the . . . air force.'
James Evans
26 Womerah Avenue, Sydney, Australia
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