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Aviation History
1943
1943 - 1381.PDF
MAY 27TH, 1943 FLIGHT 559 H.M.S. Battler Escort Carriers for Atlantic ConvoysT HE conversion of merchant hulls into aircraft carriers for escort duties with Atlantic ship- ping provides the latest weapon against th'.' •U-boat.. Here is H.M.S. Battler', first of the new type, which carries Seafires and Swordfish and has a complement of 70 officers and 450 men under Capt. F. M. R. Stevenson, R.N. H.M.S. Battler is largely pre-fabricated and.is an all-welded job. (Top, right): This port beam view of H.M.S. Battler shows herslim "island" superstructure. (Bottom, right): A torpedo- equipped Swordfish coming up in the lift. (Above): The deckcontrol officer, complete with illuminated signalling "bats." Sir Nigel Norman Passing of the Founder of Heston Airport ON May 21st it was officially announced that Air Comdre.Sir Nigel Norman, lit., A.A.F., had lost his life this month while flying on active service. Henry Nigel St. Valery Norman was born on May 21st, 1897,son of the Right Hon. Sir Henry Norman (created a baronet of Honeyhanger, Surrey, 1915), whom he succeeded in 1939.He was educated at Winchester, and at Trinity College, Cam- bridge, and during the T914-1S war served in France in .theK.G.A.' and the R.E. In 1926 he became a private aircraft owner, and two years later, with Mr. F. A. I. Muntz, foundedAirwork Limited to construct and develop Heston Airport. He specialised in planning airports in this country and abroad. In 1^26 he joined the Auxiliary Air Force as a pilot officer,and served with No. 601 (County of London) Squadron for 10 years, being promoted squadron leader in November, 1931.In March, 1940, he became temporary, wing commander; in June, 1942, temporary group captain, and in March this yearacting air commodore. From the early days of the war he worked in close collabora-tion with the Army on matters pertaining to airborne troops. It was his brain which controlled the air side of the first Britishparatroop raid on Italy shortly after she entered the war. Hi- not only arranged all the details, !>ut took a personal interestin all the numerous training exercises before the raid and accompanied the paratroops ' on the expedition, re turn ing.regretfully, he said, in an aircraft, as he was not at that time a proficient parachutist. When he got back he went on a parachute course at one ofthe R.A.F. schools. He distinguished himself in the raid by British parachute troops on the coast of northern France inMarch, 1942, when the radio location post at Bruneval, 12 miles north of Havre, was destroyed. It was a combined operation of the Royal Navy, the Army, and the Royal Air Force, thecarrying force of RiA.F. bombers being under Grp. Capt. Sr Nigel Norman and led by Wing Cdr. P. C. Pickard. As officercommanding a R.A.F. formation of an airborne division he was responsible for the intricate organisation before the trans-port of our airborne troops to North Africa. In 1926 Norman married Patricia Moyra, eldest daughter of the late Lt. Col.J. H. A. Annesley, and they had three sons, the eldest of whom, Mark Annesley, born on February 8th, 1927, succeedsas third baronet. Private flying, commercial and Service aviation all lose a manof a type they can ill spare in the death of Nigel Norman. For the four years he commanded 601 squadron, those whowere associated with him knew that a better or more enthusi- astic commanding officer could hardly have been found.His interest in aviation was unbounded, and there were few aspects of it that he omitted from his activities. In 1935, inassociation with Graham Dawbarn, he founded the firm of Norman and Dawbarn, and was responsible for the lay-out ofmany municipal airports in this country, including those at Birmingham, Ring way, Jersey, and Guernsey. He was a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, a memberof the Aviation Committee of the London Chamber of Cotn- mtpce, and a member of the Council of the Air RegistrationBoard, of which body he was also chairman of the Design and Construction Panel. It is not only for his aviation activities that Nigel Normanwill be remembered. He combined an imaginative approach to the problems of civil aviation which, together with hisgreat personal charm and translucent integrity of character, made it certain that he would have played a great part in thefuture of civil aviation.
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