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Aviation History
1943
1943 - 2142.PDF
.048 FLIGHT SEPTEMBER JBND, 1943 A.T.C. Summer Camp Air Marshal Sir T. Leigh'Mallory Inspects East End Cadets : R.A.F. Instructors Qive Specialised Training During Week Under Canvas THE Air Training Corps has now been in existence forsome two and a half years and numbers more than200,000 cadets and some 20,000 officers in neariy 2,000 squadrons spread all over the country. It seems hardly necessary at this stage, therefore, to stress the importance to the war effort of this great and vigorous organisation. But if anyone, in or out of the R.A.F. and the Fleet Air Arm, should need to be persuaded of the fact, then the value attached to*.the A.T.C. by the heads of the fighting air services will surely be evidence enough. An outstanding example of this was recently provided when Air Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory, A.O.C.-in-C. Fighter Command, R.A.F., paid a visit to an R.A.F. train- ing station where the A.T.C. holds one of its biggest summer training camps. This camp is administered by London Command of the Corps, but it caters for cadets from adjacent A.T.C. Commands as well. That such a high ranking officer of the R.A.F. should find time, amid all the pressing duties devolving upon him in days like these, to make a special journey of some distance and spend several hours among the cadets, is eloquent testimony of the high regard in which the Corps is held by those at the top. Between 200 and 300 cadets spend a week at this par- ticular camp throughout the summer season from June to September, and at the time of Sir Trafford's visit there were present detachments from five squadrons of London Command and three from the South-East Command. These were Nos. 106 Orsett (Essex), 1014 Walthamstow, 308 Col- chester, 1853 Lambeth and 34 Battersea, of London Com- mand, and Nos. "354 Dover, 1219 Sutton and Cheam, and 1236 Swanley squadrons. An additional number of A.T.C. School units would also have been there, but they had been diverted to help in harvesting. On Parade p Sir Trafford arrived at the station in time for lunch, and was received by its A.O.C., Air Comdre. H. G. White, and Sqn. Ldr. Salthouse, A.T.C. Commandant of the camp. The smartness of the A.T.C. on parade is now generally accepted by all who have seen them on even the most modest of ceremonial occasions, but this was an occasion when that little bit extra was patently called for; true to the traditions which the Corps is steadily building up, the turn-out on the station's wide parade ground was worthy of a regiment of young Guardsmen, As each squadron in turn was brought to attention it did so as one man, Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory and Air Comdre.H. G. White inspect the cadets. SIGNAL HONOUR. Particularly proud were those cadetswith whom the A.O.C.-in-C. Fighter Command paused during his inspection to exchange a few words. This young flight-sergeant cadet may one day be a pilot in Sir Trafford's - own command. and not a muscle moved as Sir Trafford and his accompany- ing officers moved slowly down the ranks. Occasionally the Air Marshal stopped and spoke to a cadet, and one can readily imagine the young man's secret pride at being singled out by the head of Fighter Command for even the briefest conversation. Last to be inspected was the band of Walthamstow WingA.T.C., and very smart indeed they looked, with their white belts and gloves and the sun glinting on their drumsand bugles. Then Sir Trafford took up his position at the saluting base, and the cadets marched past led by the bandwhose smart appearance was matched by its musicatiJf> prowess. From the parade ground the cadets marched back to thetent lines where their kits were laid out in impeccably neat array. And here, in an open space behind the lines, theboys were drawn up, " standing-easy," in three sides of a square to hear what Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory thoughtabout-them. The Governing Factor What he said to them must have inspired not only aglow of satisfaction but an equally strong determination to carry, on with their work with unflagging energy untilthe job is finished. The R.A.F. and the Fleet Air Arm, he told them, were depending more and more on the A.T.C. to supply the right material. Air operations had played an ever-grow- ing* part in the war until now they were the governing factor. He commended them for their excellent aiscipline and efficiency and gave a special word of praise to the band. Also he expressed his gratitude to the officers a"hd ^ instructors of the A.T.C. who, he reminded the cadets, were mostly busy men who cheerfully sacrificed what might have been their spare time to give them their trail- ing, the excellence of which was demonstrated by the results. Lest it be suspected that the military precision displayed by the cadets on this occasion was a special effort only achieved by devoting a disproportionate amount of their
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