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Aviation History
1945
1945 - 1762.PDF
SEPTEMBER 6TH, IO.45 FLIGHT 249 JUNGLE MAINTENANCE covered with whatever was available. Even then covered aircraft suffered from the splashing of the downpour. Nothing could afford protection from the effect of water vapour steaming up from the ground. Crews had to move warily when lifting cowlings and stripping aircraft; scorpions and centipedes in Central Burma habitually settled in the many niches that aircraft engines and fuselages have to offer: Snakes curled up under cowlings and in cockpits. One test pilot was attacked by a snake when flying at 5,000ft. He was wearing gloves and, though the snake struck twice, it did not penetrate. The pilot killed it. Tropical birds, also, simply could not be discouraged from building nests in the gun bays when guns were removed for maintenance. In a land campaign decided by air supply, aircraft spares, including aircraft engines, had for the most part to be flown in. Engines or aircraft beyond the repair capacity of the mobile servicing units had to be flown out or broken down and the serviceable parts salvaged to make good aircraft, regular flow of all types of aircraft engines—serviceable forward and repairable back—was part of the Dakota supply service. What would not fit inside was slung under- neath the aircraft. A supply squadron specialising in carrying maintenance requirements to jungle airstrips inaugurated what their Canadian personnel called '' The Valley Hop." A Dakota would go forward and move between units and repair units, noting what each was requiring most urgently and what each had to spare. The Dakota then began a shuttle service, ultimately reaching the point where the best redistribution of requirements was made and a few more aircraft would be made ser- viceable. So, for more than a year of constant shifting and chang ing, of treks over mountains and through jungle, up hills where men followed the crawling lorries with wheel chocks ready, the maintenance units moved, settling on strips for a month, for a week, sometimes only for days, as the Japanese retreat went on. They never let up on the job. They are to-day still keeping the Spitfires, Mosquitoes and Thunderbolts flying. A great achievement. Bomber Harris Retires Famous Chief Leaving Service : Deputy Chief of Staff Takes Over /1FTER holding the appointment for over 3^ years, and /-% carrying the responsibility for the biggest bombing *• •*• campaign of the war, Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur T. Harris, G.C.B., O.B.E., A.F.C., is to relinquish command of Bomber Command this month. He is expected shortly afterwards to retire from the Koyal Air Force. For his outstanding services in building up and operating the Royal Air Force bombing offensive against Germany he was awarded the G.C.B. in the last Honours List. Before becoming A.O.C.-in-C. Bomber Command Sir Arthur went to America in charge of the Royal Air Force dele- gation and, previously to that—from November, 1940, to May, 1941—he was Deputy Chief of Air Staff. He went to the Air Staff after commanding No. 5 (Bomber) Group. Sir Arthur started his military career in the ranks in 1914 when he enlisted , in. the 1st Rhodesian Regiment, with ^^ich he served in German West 'ifrica. In 1915 he returned to England and was granted a commission in the Royal Flying Corps. He served in France and with home defence squad- rons and was awarded the Air Force Cross in 1918. By 1921 he was commanding No. 31 Squadron in India ; afterwards having charge of No. 45 Squadron in Iraq. Then followed a variety of appointments and experience. Returning to England in 1924 he took a Senior Officers' course and later commanded the first post-war squadron to fly heavy bombers at night. At Camberley, in 1928, he passed the Army Staff College and then went to the Middle East for a further tour of duty abroad. Returning to England in 1932 he took a flying-boat pilot's course at ^o-lshot. By the following year Sir Arthur became Deputy director of Intelligence, and in 1934 became Deputy •'rector of Plans. His first Group command—No. 4 (Bomber)—came in 1937. He held this for quite a short period, for in 1938 he was A.O.C. R.A.F. in Palestine and Transjordan. Sir Arthur Harris is now only 55 and it is to be hooped that he will give the nation many more years of jgervice in some other capacity. ^_ "*r Marshal SiJl^Norman Bottomley, .X)., A.F.C., who is Ohief of Staff, will as A.O.C.-in-C. Air Marshal A. , will leave the ow commands in and will take up the Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Travers Harris, A.O.C.-in-C. Bomber Command R.A.F. from February, 1942 to September, 1945. of Deputy Chief of the Other Changes in Higher Command Air Marshal Sir Charles R. Carr K.B.E., C.B., D.F.C., A.F.C., who succeeds Air Marshal Sir Leslie Holling- hurst, K.B.E., C.B., D.F.C., as Air Marshal Commanding, Base Air Force. South-East Asia, took up his new duties on August 22nd. Sir Leslie has been selected for the appointment as Air Council Member for Supply and Organ- isation. Air Marshal Sir John S. T. Bradley, K.C.B., C.B.E., is relinquish- ing his appointment as Deputy Member foi Supply and Organisation and will retire from the Service. The post will then lapse. Air Vice-Marshai Sir Hugh W. L. Saunders, K.B.E., C.B., M.C., D.FC. and Bar, M.M., is to be Air Marshal Commanding R.A.F. Burma. As his decorations show, Sir Hugh, a South African, has had a splendid military career since joining the 10th Witwatersrand Rifles in August, 1914. In this war he has been seconded for special duty with the New Zealand Government from 1939 to 1942 and came home to become A.O.C. Headquarters No. n Group, Fighter Command. For a while he was Director-General of Postings.
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