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Aviation History
1948
1948 - 1237.PDF
AUGUST 5TH, 1948 FLIGHT 167 Service Aviation to Air Marshal Sir Ralph Sorley, who has now retired from the active list, was announced in April. AIR COMMODORE (Acting A.V-M.)Cecil Arthur Bouchier, C.B., C.B.E., D.F.C., has been appointed Air Officer Commanding No. * 21 Group, Flying Training Command, retaining the acting rank of Air Vice-Marshal, with effect from July 9, 1948. Until recently A.O.C., Air Group, British Commonwealth Occupation Forces, Japan, where he went in October, 1945, after having been A.O.C. No. 221 Group, Air Command, Scuth-East Asia, for four months, A.V-M. Bouchier was formerly Senior Air Staff Officer, 11 Group, Fighter Command, from July, 1944, and for a year previously was S.A.S.O. at Fighter Command Headquarters. In 1942 he was at the Air Ministry as Deputy Director of Flying Operations and earlier in the war he commanded the fighter station at Hornchurch during the Battle of Britain before going to 11 Group Headquarters on day-operational duties in December, 1940. Musicians Wanted BANDMASTERS of the Royal AirForce Regional Bands are to be given a higher status. Formerly War- rant Officers, they are now to be com- missioned with the rank of Flying Officer. Recruits for the trade of musician in the R.A.F. are urgently needed. They must have a fair degree of skill on any of the usual military band instruments, as there are at present no basic musical training facilities in the Service. An apprenticeship scheme is now under con- sideration under which boys will be given a three-year training course as R.A.F. musicians. A Royal Air Force School of Music is to be formed as soon as suit- able accommodation is available, but this will be primarily for training Band- masters. Defence College CourseT HE following Royal Air Force officers have been selected for the 1949 course at the Imperial Defence College: A. Cdre. Sir Harry Broadhurst, K.B.E., C.B., D.S.O., D.F.C., A.F.C., Air Officer Commanding No. 61 (Eastern Reserve) Group; A. Cdre. the Earl of Bandon, C.B., D.S.O., Commandant, Royal Obser- f ver Corps; A. Cdre. F. J. Fressanges, •-C.B., Director of Operations, Air Minis- try; A. Cdre. T. G. Pike, C.B., C.B.E., D.F.C., Director of Operational Require- ments (A), Air Ministry; A. Cdre. H. D. Spreckley, O.B.E., Commandant, Empire Air Armament School; G/C. (acting Air Commodore) A. W. B. McDonald, A.F.C., Commandant, R.A.F. Staff Col- lege, Andover; G/C. G. P. Chamberlain, C.B., O.B.E., Director of Civil Air Operations, Ministry of Civil Aviation; G/C. E. N. Lowe, C.B., O.B.E., Officer Commanding, No. 16 Maintenance Unit. , This will be the fourth post-war coursea t the College and will last from January to December. M.U. Merger VTOS. 389 Maintenance Unit and No. ~^ 390 Maintenance Unit, Royal Air Force, have merged with Headquarters R.A.F. Base, Seletar. Under the com- mand of Air Commodore G. P. H. Carter, t> A ?."' *"ne new f°rrnation is known asK-A.F. Maintenance Base (Far East), Seletar, and will be responsible for thesupply and repair of all forms of service equipment, including aircraft, marinecraft and motor transport, to all units in Air Command Far East. Recruiting of R.A.F.V.R.R ECRUITING £>f navigators and sig-nallers for the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve has begun at No. 44R.A.F. Reserve Centre, Castle Bromwich airfield, Warwickshire, and No. 5R.A.F. Reserve Centre, Cambridge air- field. Flying training will take placeat the airfields at which the Reserve Centres are located. These new centresknown as No. 5 and 22 Reserve Flying Schools respectively, are already openfor the training of R.A.F.V.R. and W.A.A.F. /V.R. pilots, recruiting forwhich began some time ago. Recruiting for navigators and signallers is alreadyopen at Panshanger, Fairoaks, Woodley, Hamble, Rochester, and Perth, so thereare now eight schools a^Lwhich these categories of R. A.F.V.R.^c^Jje trained. transport routes across the Atlantic, theMediterranean and the Continent of Europe. He held this post for five monthsuntil July, 1946, when he went to Ux- bridge in command of Air Traffic Head-quarters. Later he was for a time head of the Joint Aircraft Control Board. He,was educated at Stonyhurst College and the Royal Air Force College, Cranwell,from which he was commissioned in the R.A.F. in 1925. He is chairman of theR.A.F. Boxing Association. Liaison VisitN EW problems that will face aircraftnavigators with the introduction, at some future date, of high-speed high-altitude jet bombers are among the sub- jects to be discussed with the RoyalCanadian Air Force and the United States Air Force by a liaison team from theR.A.F. Empire Air Navigation School, Shawbury, Shropshire, which leaves onAugust 9th for a month's tour of Canada and the U.S.A. Another object of thevisit is to explain and discuss the recent TROUBLE SHOOTERS : Three R.P.-equipped Spitfires on the airfield at Kuala Lumpur being prepared for one of the RAF. attacks on Malayan terrorists in the neighbouring jungle. Previous sweeps by Spitfires had shown that a big concentration of terrorists was hiding in the Semenyit area, to the south of Kuaia Lumpur, and two insurgent hide-outs were attack- ed ; a direct hit was scored on another occasion on the the insurgent headquarters. Later, R.A.F. Spitfires supported troops and police in a large-scale round up of terrorists. R.A.F. Regiment (Malaya) NO. 93 Squadron of the R.A.F. Regi-ment (Malaya) is now being formed and 160 selected recruits from all over Malaya have had their medical tests at R.A.F. Station, Sembawang. The squadron is commanded by S/L. D. G. Roberts, and the second-in-command is F/L. J. H. Thacker. A1 Netf CO. for Boscombe IR COMMODORE H. L. PATCH, C.B.E., who was at the Air Minis- try from last December until recently as Director of Operational Training, has just taken up a new appointment as Officer Commanding the A. and A.E. Establishment at R.A.F. Station, Bos- combe Down, Wiltshire. An armament specialist, A. Cdre. Patch served with Bomber Command, at head- quarters, or in command of bomber sta- tions, from the end of 1938 until earlv in 1943, and spent the last two years of the war at the Air Ministry as Director of Armament Requirements. Afterwards, as Air Officer Commanding No. 44 Group of Transport Command, he was respon- sible for the organization and operation of the air traffic controls serving the air Air Ministry decision that all R.A.F. navigators shall have career prospects comparable with those open to pilots. Commanding the flight, which will be made<in an Avro Lancastrian, will be G/C. C. E. Chilton, C.B.E., Deputy- Director of Navigation at the Air Minis- try/" S/L. P. D. Tunstajl will be captain of the Lancastrian, and other crew mem- bers will be F/L. J. D. Woods (2nd Pilot), F/L. Bower. (Navigator), F/L. J. A. Kraemer (2nd Navigator), M. Sig. W. J. Ashcroft, D.F.C., A.F.C. (Signal- ler). Sgt. R. H. Croxford (Fitter), Sgt. J. L. Evison (Fitter), and Cpl. H. V. Clinton (Instrument Maker and Elec- trician). W/C. A. M. Taylor will repre- sent the Navigation Training branch of the Air Ministry, and W/C. P, B. Wood the Operational Requirements branch. Royal Observer Corps Exercise SOME 100 R.A.F. aircraft took part ina Royal Observer Corps exercise covering twelve counties of Southern England on Sunday, July 25. The Fighter Command raid-reporting system was manned for the exercise, which lasted from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. R.O.C. operations centres at Beckenham, Col- chester, Horsham, Maidstone, Watford
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