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Aviation History
1946
1946 - 0686.PDF
•352 FLIGHT APRIL 4TH, 1946 INCREASING BREED : The Mosquito still forms the equipment of many R.A.F. squadrons. One of the latest to go into service is the P.R. Mark 34 pictured above, which, with a total tankage of 1,269 gallons, has a range of over 3,500 miles. SERVICE AVIATION Royal Air Force and Naval Air Arm News and Announcements New Admiral (Air) REAR ADMIRAL G. N. OLIVER, whoin 1944 and 1945 was Commodore-in-Conunand of escort carriers, has been ap- pointed Admiral (Air) in succession toVice-Admiral Sir Denis W. Boyd, D.S.C. Rear Admiral Oliver is 48. Middle East Merger Three R.A.F. Formations Combine '"THREE well-known R.A.F. forma-J- tions have been merged to form a new group—No. 219 Group—under thecommand of Air Vice-Marshal S. E. Toomer, C.B.E., D.F.C., withinMED/ME Command. They were for- merly Air Headquarters Eastern Medi-terranean, Air Headquarters Egypt, and No. 206 Maintenance Group. Each of these formations has a distin-guished record in its own sphere. Air Headquarters, Eastern Mediterraneanwas formed, under the Command of Air Vice-Marshal T. A. Langford-Sainsbury,in February, 1944, from 201 Group and Air Defence-Eastern Med. No. 201Group was a General Reconnaissance Group, and Air Defence-EasternMed., based in Cairo, was respon- sible for all fighter defence. Themerging of these two formations meant that Air Headquarters became re-sponsible for the defence of the Eastern Mediterranean from Tripoli (Tripoli-tania) to Tripoli (Syria), and also for co- operation with the Royal Navy. Two of the notable feats in its historywere, first, the sighting and shadowing of the Italian Fleet and the operationculminating in the crippling naval defeat at Taranto; and, secondly, the provisionof air cover, in co-operation with the Desert A.x Force, for the convoy carry-ing Australian troops to relieve the be- Jeagured Polish division at Tobruk,* inthe summer of 1941. So effective was this cover that, in spite of repeated Axisair attacks, not a single vessel was lost. From 1940 until the end of activeoperations approximately 2,000 sorties a month, amounting to a total of 100,000sorties, were planned from the Head- quarters, and in the final stages of theAegean blockade, from January 1st to October 4th, 1944, its aircraft again per-formed a major role. They sank or damaged 64,847 tons of Axis shippingout of a total of about 110,000 tons then being used by the enemy in the Aegean. As the war moved away from Egypt,it became possible to merge No. 203 (Training) Group into Air Headquarters,Eastern Mediterranean. This meant that "Eastern Med.," in addition to itsother commitments, took over full re- sponsibility for training operational air-crews, at -the O.T.U.s in Egypt, Pales- tine and Cyprus.Air Headquarters, Egypt, was consti- tuted in September, 1944, as a separateformation out of Air Headquarters Eastern Mediterranean and Headquarters206 Group, in order to command all purely administrative units in Egypt;particularly the transit camps and em- barkation centres. It also exercised cer-tain area responsibilities over all R.A.F. units in -Egypt, regardless of their con-trolling formation, in such matters as, for example, area defence, welfare, worksservices and provost services. No. 206 Group was formed in June,i94r, as the Maintenance Group of the Middle East Command. Air CommodoreC. B. Cooke, C.B.E., was appointed A.O.C., and his small maintenance stafffrom ^Middle1 East Headquarters was ab- sorbed into the new group Headquarters.The work of 206 Group was to supply the needs of the Air Force in Egypt and theWestern Desert and to keep them up to strength jn aircraft engine spares, radioequipment, mechanical transport and other requirements vital to the air war.The Group controlled all the storage units, repair and salvage mobile unitsand depots, and supply and transport columns.In the middle of 1942, with Rommel's panzers fast approaching Alamein, re-serves of equipment had to be moved and stocks built up in Palestine andKhartoum. In later months, the Group supplied the Desert Air Force, M.T.columns carrying nearly 20,000 tons a month over nearly half a million miles ofdesert road after the battle of Alamein and the Group equipped over 250 com-plete units for action in North Africa, Southern France, Italy and Greece. By1943 the Group's units were spread from Palestine to Benghazi, with a few hiItaly and Greece. Naval Artificers at ArbroathT HE Royal Navy has a new ArtificerTraining Establishment at Arbroath where more than 700 Air Artificer Ap-prentices are training for skilled service in aircraft carriers, in aircraft repairships or with Royal Naval air squadrons and in workshops ashore. The appren-tices are sent to Arbroath at the end of their first years' training at the RoyalNaval Artificers' Training Establishment, Torpoint, in Cornwall, or at Rosyth,Scotland. Entry is by competitive examination,and between 150 and 180 boys from 15 to 16 years of age, of sound education am!physical fitness are admitted annually They serve for 12 years from the age Q18 and can then volunteer to re-engage fof a further 10 years to complete time forpension. Successful candidates are sent, first, to one of the new Entry TrainingEstablishments near Lee-on-Solent. Here they are kitted up, and are given lecturesto acquaint them with their branch of the Service, including a talk by a NavalPilot with operational experience. Visits to the air station, and air trips are alsoarranged. The real work begins at Torpoint orRosyth. For a year, apprentices are given basic training as fitters, with ad-ditional education and plenty of recrea- tion. Climax of the first year is a testjob and an examination; apprentices
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