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Aviation History
1939
1939-1- - 0019.PDF
JULY 6, 1939 (f0iS® Fleet Air Arm Units Visited LEE-on-the-SOLENT H.Q. Naval Air Stations (Illustrated with "Flight" Photographs) By MAJOR F. A. de V. ROBERTSON, V.D. Lee-on-the-Solent is officially known as H.M.S. Daedalus. IT must have been a very considerable piece of work to organise the Royal Air Force in April, 1918, and it is now likewise a man's job to get the various air stations of the Fleet Air Arm into running order. Rear Admiral R. Bell Davies, V.C., D.S.O., A.F.C., hero of R.N.A.S. flying exploits at Dunkirk and in Turkey, and his Chief Staff Officer, Capt. L. D. Mackintosh, D.S.C., have a busy time before them. On May 24 the Rear Admiral hoisted his flag in H.M.S. Dcsdalus, which is the official name of Lee-on-the-Solent, and at the same time took over the command of H.M.S. Peregrine (Ford), H.M.S. Kestrel (Worthy Down), and H.M.S. Merlin (Donibristle). Last Saturday, July 1, the rumber of naval air stations was increased by the hand ing over by the Air Ministry of Eastleigh (H.M.S. Raven) and Lympne (H.M.S. Buzzard). The formal handing over did not mean that the R.A.F. disappeared down a trapdoor ; the headquarters of the Coastal Command have -net yet moved away from Lee, and Air Force uniforms are still seen on the station, though in steadily decreasing numbers. The Fleet Air Arm is not only busy in organising itself; it is expanding with equal vigour. It follows that training of all sorts is one of the great needs of the moment. Elementary flying training of pilots, both officers and ratings, has wisely been left in the care of the Air Ministry, and is under the most efficient supervision of the C.F.S. The naval pilots are taught to fly at Netheravon. The maintenance artificers also have to be trained at the R.A.F. technical schools. It is less easy to understand why the torpedo school at Gosport is also left in the hands of the R.A.F., as the torpedo is eminently a naval weapon, and the Fleet Air Arm has many more T.S.R. squadrons than the R.A.F. has torpedo- bomber squadrons. The F.A.A. has to undertake all the special ised naval training of the pilots, and all the training of the observers. At present the train ing is parcelled out as follows: at Ford is No. 1 Observer School, which trains both officers and ratings; at Lee there is No. 2 Observer School, dealing only with officers, and also a seaplane school; at Worthy Down and Eastleigh they train air gunners, and at Doni bristle the pilots learn to land on a dummy deck before going on board the training carrier (at present H.M.S. Furious) in the Firth of Forth to learn the art of landing on the deck of a moving carrier. H.M.S. Raven used to be known as South- A rating pilot, taking the seaplane course, pre- pares for an instructional flight-in a Walrus. "•- ampton aerodrome, but the F.A.A. intends to call it East leigh for the future. It is said that when arrangements were in progress for escorting the King and Queen 10 Canada some naval personnel were filled with delirious joy at learning that they were to be posted to " Southampton," for H.M.S. Southampton was one of the escorting cruisers. I do not know if all the officers immediately exhausted their overdrafts by buying full-dress uniform, but, any way, their disappointment may be imagined when they discovered that Southampton aerodrome was meant. So henceforth it is to be known as Eastleigh: . The history of air observers in the Navy dates (not counting R.N.A.S. days) from 1921, when six officers were allowed to become observers. One of those six is-the present Chief Staff Officer at Lee, Capt. Mackintosh, who has thus as much experience of the business as anybody. In those days the rest of the observers in the carriers be longed to the R.A.F. In 1923 the Balfour Committee decided that all the observers of the Fleet Air Arm were thenceforth to be naval officers, and that they were not (like N.O. pilots) to hold temporary commissions in the R.A.F., though they were to be trained by the R.A.F. in the School of Naval Co-operation at Lee-on-the-Solent. So Lee has a long connection with air navigation over the sea.
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