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Aviation History
1943
1943 - 2414.PDF
39O FLIGHT OCTOBER yrn, 1943 ROYAL NORWEGIAN AIR FORCE IN ICELAND CHILLY WORK : A Northrop seaplane being refuelled on the beach in readiness for another patrol. and occasional hunting as a pastime. Some of them stayed as long as 15 months, perfectly happy to live this life. Any one of them would return to-morrow with pleasure. Incidentally, it is interesting to note that the Norwegian training camp is no longer at Toronto, where an airport was hired from the Canadians. " Little Norway " is now in Ontario, at a place called Muskoka, which is the old Indian name for Heaven. This new training camp is situated in the midst of a pine forest, a few miles away from the shores of Lake Mus- koka, and the land has been bought by the Royal Nor- wegian Government. Formerly it was used as an elemen- tary training centre, but now Norwegians who escape to join the Air Force will be trained here for any job-^from learning to fly to learning to cook. The new camp has been constructed on typical Nor- wegian lines, the whole place having been designed by a Norwegian architect. The timber for the buildings has been cut from the forest, and the whole scene is remark- ably reminiscent of Norway itself. It is here that Norwegians are being trained to augment the existing squadrons which are operating in the Euro- pean theatre of war. One of the two Norwegian Spitfire squadrons is still Fighter Command's top scorer, a record it has held since March. Although both squadrons have been engaged in operations for only just over a year, they have between them shot down more than 100 German air- craft, with scores of "probables" in addition. The 100th '' kill'' was made by a 24-years-old Flight Commander (his name cannot be given), who, fittingly, was one of the original 120 men. By'"bagging" two more German machines since he shot down the 1 ooth, his score now totals 6 and one-third. He shared one E.A. with two other pilots. This Norwegian captain escaped from Norway to Britain, and went with 119 other Norwegians to Canada, where they began the R.N.A.F. reconstruction at "Little Norway"—the Air Force Training Camp at Toronto. Two or three days after the young captain shot down this 100th machine he brought down the R.N.A.F.'s 103rd a 104th enemy aircraft. The two Coastal Command squadrons have not only maintained the important routine work, but have dropped well over 200 tons of bombs on German targets, while the Norwegians working in Bomber Command have dropped many more bombs on Germany than the Germans ever dropped on Norway. Norwegians are, in fact, pay- ing back the Germans for what they did to Norway with compound interest. -~- AMERICANS AT EMPI1IE CENTRAL FLYING SCHOOL 'HPHREE leading figures in the United States Army Air Force-L Training Command have completed a course at the Empire Central Flying School, and have expressed their satisfactionat the benefits derived from an interchange of information on training methods with representatives of the air forces of theBritish Comrnonwealth. The American visitors were Lt. Col. F. H. Miller, Director of Ground Training at the U.S. CentralInstructors' School, Randolph Field, Texas; Lt. Col. Schmid, Assistant Director of Training, Central Instructors' School;and Capt. Cooke, of the Instrument Flying School, Bryan, Texas. The school can be described as a "university of flying,"and the American visitors, each of whom used the trip to good advantage by flying a Marauder across the Atlantic, met expertfliers from the R.A.F. and the British Dominions * ready to share the fruits of their practical experience. The course consists not so much of instruction as a poolingof experience and ideas on training methods, supported by a theory of flight and the opportunity of individual researchwork; and the students, each of whom must be an experience*! instructor, take part on debates on training methods and visitoperational stations. The U.S.A.A.F. has no institution which is quite com-parable to the Empire Central Flying School. It is considered an honour in the flying world to be invited to take the course,and a graduation certificate is regarded as the hall-mark o£ good flying. Canada was also strongly represented by ten officers on thecourse which has just concluded, and two of them gained special distinctions and one a distinguished pass. In addition,the present chief instructor and two of the instructors on the course were Canadians.
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