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Aviation History
1945
1945 - 0015.PDF
JANUARY 4TH, 1945 FLIGHT HERE AND THERE Minister and C.-in-C. to Moscow, as agesture of appreciation. Other members of the aircrew receivedbadges appropriate to their service, and the steward was presented with a goldand silver cigarette box bearing the en- graved signatures of all the passengers. Honorary MembersB OMB-CARRYING Spitfires of the2nd T.A.F. operating on the Western Front have been nicknamed'' Honorary Members of Bomber Com- mand " by the troops to Whom they aregiving close support, says an official news bulletin.Each Spitfire carries a i.'ooo 1b. bomb load, and the Wing led by Wing Cdr.R. H. Harries, D.S.O., triple D.F.C., has just celebrated the completion of its firstyear as a bomb-carrying fighter force. The Cup That Cheered A WELLINGTON of R.A.F. Trans-port Command in the Middle East was recently saved from a crash landingby a flask of tea! "The pilot, F/O. E. F. Riddell, ofHinckley, found that his undercarriage would not lower owing to shortage ofhydraulic fluid, and seeing a flask of tea, ordered some of it to be poured into thereservoir. This provided sufficient increase inpressure to operate the landing gear and the Wimpey made a normal landing. Tiny, but Tough A "MIDGET" Australian aircrewserving with Coastal Command in the Mediterranean has recently completedits first operational tour and is now to have a spell in a non-operational zone. The average height of the crew mem-bers is only 5ft. 5in., and the average weight 10 stone. The captain, F/O. L.Bridges, of New South Wales, is only ' 5ft. 3in. tall, and is known to the restof the squadron as "The Gremlin." English crews in the same squadron,it is said, claim that the midget crew's aircraft was faster than theirs becauseit had practically nothing but its bombs to carry! New American BombM ORE than 4,000 tons of a new typeof American fragmentation bomb were dropped in one day by the U.S.Eighth Air Force during " softening up " CROPPED : Despite losing nearly half" negative altitude " over the Bristol Channel blades through a spot of this Spitfire back to base. air offensive along the Rhine, it was dis-closed recently by Colonel Philip Schwartz, armament chief of U.S. AirService Command. The bombs weigh 265 1b. each and con-tain T.N.T. wrapped in wire halix. On exploding they scatter a maximum quan-tity of lethal fragments among Germans on heavily fortified positions in front ofour troops. They are being used in ever-increasingquantities. Led a Friend InF LT. LT. J. R. MACELWAIN, of St,John, New Brunswick, a Spitfire pilot of R.A.F, 2nd T.A.F., recently sawa Lancaster in distress over the enemy lines in Holland. Two of the heavy bomber's engineswere dead and the aircraft was losing height rapidly.The Canadian fighter pilot flew up alongside, waggled his wings, and led thecrippled bomber safely to his own air- field, where it made a crash-landing. " Then I discovered that the Lancasterpilot was an old Dutch pal of mine," the Canadian pilot stated. "Only acouple of weeks before we had been hav- ing a drink together at one of theServices clubs in London." theand (he and Well-earned Rest W1 "They're on the new hu! ITH 139 "ops"to her credit, Bomber Command'srecord-breaking Lan- caster, " M2," has nowbeenyplaced on reserve is approaching hertirement. She first flew onApril 17th, 1943, and did her first mission toDortmund the follow- ing month. Altogethershe has been 97 times to Germany, including15 to Berlin, five times to Italian targets, and37 times to other places. This represents a total of 960 opera-tional hours, during which " M2 " has consumed 193,000 gallons of petrol. Rescue by Parachute XTORTH-WEST Air Command of the•L ' R.C.A.F. recently announced existence of a parachute searchrescue division for operation 'over wild country between EdmontonWhitfliorse (Yukon Territory). Tins, il is bcl'cved, will more than double thechance of survival for crews of aircraft forced down in this inaccessible and in-hospitable region. Tho "para-searchers" have hadspecialised first-aid and rnediral training and can even administer blood plasmaif necessary. They also carry two-wav radio equipment and food supplies, andnear special protective suits, crash helmets, and cages to protect their faces. The aircraft in this unit, the only oneof its kind in the R.C.A.F., are titled with four litters and oxygen equipment. Canadian War EffortS OME striking figures showing theextent of Canada's war output are contained in a 400-page booklet issuedby Mr. C. D. Howe, their Minister of Munitions and Supply, just beforeChristmas. These include nearly 11,000 aircraft,nearly 1,000,000 machine guns and small arms units, and 3,000,000,000(three billion) rounds of small arms r.m- m unit ion, besides cargo vessels,armoured naval craft, armoured fighting vehicles, and mechanical transport unitsby the hundreds and thousands. Steel production has been doubled to apresent annual total of 3,000,000 tons, and coal output increased by more than2,000,000 tons since war began. Less than 30 per cent, of all this goesto Canada's own armed Forces, the rest going to other members of the UnitedNations. The booklet gives hints on how thisindustrial effort may eventually be switched to peacetime needs with im-proved transport services.
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