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Aviation History
1933
1933 - 0754.PDF
FLIGHT, OCTOBER 12, 1933 No. 207 (BOMBER) SQUADRON By MAJOR F. A. de V. ROBERTSON ccvn IT was during the Army Manoeuvres of September, 1925, that I first made acquaintance with No. 207 (Bomber) Squad ron. Air Defence of Great Britain had lent two bomber squadrons to the Army to take part in the most exten sive manoeuvres which had been held since the war. The two selected were No. 39 B.S.. which has since gone on the Indian establish ment and lives at Kisalpur. and the other was No. 207 B.S., then commanded by Sqd. Ldr. V. Gaskell-Blackburn, D.S.C., A.F.C. In one of my reports on those manoeuvres I wrote: "I have a very vivid recollection of No. 207 passing over my head one afternoon to work mischief on the rear of the Wessex force, and keeping formation in squadron mass as perfectly as they did at Hendon." The machines they flew in those days were of the D.H.9A. type. Afterwards they were given the Fairey III F. with Napier " Lion," and they kept these machines until October, 1932, when they were re-equipped with " Gor dons " (with the Armstrong-Siddeley " Panther " II A.), which had been III F.'s converted at Henlow. It was not until the summer of 1933 that I was privileged to visit Bircham Newton and " interview " the squadron. Bircham Newton is not far from the north coast of Norfolk, and is within an easy flight of the King's country house at Sandringham. It is also near the sea, which is another advantage. Otherwise, it is rather a bleak spot, and I could not honestly say that I envied the two squad rons who live there, Nos. 35 and 207 B.S., their habita tion. At the time of my visit No. 207 was practising for the R.A.F. Display, at which they were to take part in the Set Piece. So far as the spectators were concerned, their trouble was wasted, for the rain caused a curtailment of the programme, and I for one did not see No. 207 make their appearance. I expect that their entry was cancelled by wireless- On aesthetic grounds I much prefer the appearance of the Fairey III F. to that of the Fairey " Gordon." When a fuselage has been designed for a water-cooled engine, and then is adapted to take an air-cooled radial, it re minds me of the traditional 'Arry on 'Ampstead 'Eath, when he has exchanged hats with 'Arriet. The CO. of the squad ron, however, told me that he preferred air-cooled engines, and that the " Gordons " were faster and took off better than the old III F.'s used to do. It is per formance which matters, not the tastes of Press correspondents. Squadron numbers of 200 and upwards (not, of course, up to 500) indicate a connection with the old Royal Naval Air Service. Most of the numbers in the 200's belong to flying-boat squadrons, but 207 and 208 are landplane squadrons, the former being the subject of this article and the latter an Army co-operation squadron stationed at Heliopolis. In both cases, when the Royal Air Force was formed, the two figures " 20 " were prefixed to the original R.N.A.S. number. Thus, No. 207 Squadron, R.A.F., was originally No. 7 Squadron, R.N.A.S. In April, 1916, two R.N.A.S. wings were formed at Dunkirk in order to harry more than ever the German U boats and aircraft stationed on the coast of Belgium. After a time No. 4 Wing gave birth to No. 7 Squadron, and this in turn gave off No. 7A, which afterwards became No. 14 Squadron, R.N.A.S. Dunkirk was the naval base which had to watch and attack all the German positions on the Belgian coast, airship bases, aerodromes, submarines in the basins at Bruges, the lock gates of canals, railways, and the mole at Zeebrugge, etc. This was one of the most important tasks allotted to the R.N.A.S. in the war. At first the R.N.A.S. unit was a flight of six machines, but later on squadrons were organised. No. 7 Squadron, R.N.A.S., came into being as a separate unit at the end of November, 1916. It was equipped purely as a bomber squadron, while No. 6 Squadron, R.N.A.S., became purely a fighting unit. No. 7 started its independent career with one flight of twin- engined " Caudrons " and one flight of Short bombers.* During most of the winter the weather was too bad for much flying, but in February a heavy frost, 22J deg. on the ground, froae in a number of German destroyers in the basins at Bruges. The target was so tempting that it was felt that an attempt must be made to warm up the basin with exploding bombs. Both the R.N.A.S. wings at Dunkirk made strenuous efforts. The cold hampered them. Engines froze, and pilots lost their way, but on February 3 one machine dropped three bombs among the frozen-in destroyers. The attempt next night was more READY FOR THE DAY'S WORK: Fairey "Gordons " ("Panther" engines) lined up on the aerodrome at Bircham Newton. (FLIGHT Photd) 1022
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