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Aviation History
1952
1952 - 0795.PDF
28 Marchji952 SERVICE AVIATION Royal Air Force and Naval Aviation News C.A.S. at Charterhouse O N Friday last, Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir John Slessor inspected the Charterhouse contingent of the Com bined Cadet Force. After the inspection, speaking on the R.A.F. as a career and of National Service, Sir John said, "The primary reason for building up our fighting forces—which we cannot do without the National Service system.—is not to get ready to fight another world war, but to prevent another world war. I think myself we have a jolly good chance of doing so— I do not believe that World War III is just round the corner. But we certainly shall not do so unless we are steadfast and brave, resolute and patient and ready to accept the necessary sacrifices of time and leisure and comfort. "It depends partly on you," he con tinued. "If you enter on your two years' National Service determined to hate it and do as little as you can, then you'll get no good out of it. But if you are that sort of chap you'll probably get no good out of any job. If you come into the Service deter mined to make the best of it, to give the best that is in you, then I believe you'll be a much better chap in after life than if you had not given those two years to the coun try." Turning to the subject of the expansion of the R.A.F., Sir John said: "The only thing that worries me about our ability to do what we have set out to do is a shortage of good officers as pilots and navigators. I hope some of you will be going through Cranwell into the Regular Service. Others, who may not be certain whether they want to make the Service a career, I hope will come in on the short-service commission with the aim of getting a permanent com mission. But others who have only their two years' National Service to do, I hope will come and do it with us as pilots. We are really in need of good young officers with the tradition of Service and leader ship—the type that you get in a school like Charterhouse—to carry on the great tradi tions that the R.A.F. has established in its short 35 years of existence." Australia to Borrow "Vengeance" S PEAKING at the opening of a new naval leave centre, Mr. Menzies, the Aus tralian Prime Minister, announced that Britain had agreed to lend the light fleet carrier H.M.S. Vengeance to the Royal Australian Navy, pending the completion of H.M.A.S. Melbourne, which is now being built in the United Kingdom. An Australian crew of about 500 officers and ratings will take over Vengeance in Britain next November. Capt. H. M. Burrell, R.A.N., who is at present the assistant Australian defence representative, will be in command. The Australian government has asked for the loan of the carrier because it was felt necessary to have two carriers ready for any emergency and also to develop the air component of the R.A.N. 365 SPITHEAD DISPLAY: Blackburn Firebrands and Wickers-Armstrongs Supermarine Attackers ranged on the flight deck of H.M.S. "Eagle," ready to proceed with the working-up programme recently demonstrated in the Channel. An account of the flying appears on pages 340 to 342. Cold War Training A WEEK ago today nine R.A.F. officers left Lyneham for Oslo to spend 14 days on a cold weather survival exercise. The visit is being made at the invitation of Hans Nansen, nephew of Dr. Nansen the explorer, who is placing his mountain lodge near Tisleia at the disposal of the R.A.F. party. Tisleia is about 115 miles north-west of Oslo. Mr. Nansen is acting as instructor. W/C. D. G. Lyster, of the Air Ministry Directorate of Operational Training, is in charge of the party, which includes S/L. D. C. Saunders, F/L. I. L. H. Ramage and F/L. P. Coventry from Bomber Command, F/Os. P. E. Pullan and W. T. Ansell from Transport Command and F/L. R. Bowie from Fighter Command. - Arctic Training Flights NEXT Sunday four Lincolns will leave the R.A.F. Central Navigation and Central School, Shawbury, Salop, for Keflavik, Iceland, on the first stage of an arctic navigation flight. From Keflavik, in flights lasting over 13 hours each, training exercises will take the Lincolns over Green land to a point some 400 miles from the North Pole. W/C. R. N. Wardell will be in command. The other three captains are F/L. J. Maxwell, F/L. C. O. Ellison and F/L. C. W. Eaton. Two students will fly in each Lincoln. Army Rugby Champions THERE can be little doubt that, on the play, the Army were lucky to beat the R.A.F. at Twickenham last Saturday in the final game of the Inter-Services Cham pionship. They had been expected to win, but from the kick-off the R.A.F. forwards set such a pace and played with such determination that they kept the opposition on the defensive for almost the whole game and prevented the strong Army line from getting much of the ball. Had the R.A.F.'s inexperienced three-quarter line had more attacking strength, or made more use of the Springbok kick towards the corner flag, they must surely have won by a good margin. In addition, had either side—but particularly the R.A.F.—taken advantage of the very large number of penalty kicks awarded by the referee, the scores might again have been very different. As it was, the half-time score was 3 points all—a drop goal by Channer for the R.A.F. and a penalty by Edwards for the Army. At this time, with better place-kicking, the scores could have been 15-9 to the R.A.F. Early in the second half the R.A.F. came near to scoring on Lodwig's wing, and soon afterwards a passing movement starting with Channer and going via Collingridge to Greenwood, brought a well-deserved touch-down. Smailes missed the fairly wide kick. Channer continued to drive the Army back with fine long touch-kicking. The score was still 6-3 to the R.A.F. near full-time, when one of the many penalties finally enabled the Army— through Edwards again—to equalize. Then, in the last seconds, playing on injury time, Wood, the Army wing, forced through for a try to make the score 9-6 to the, Army. The R.A.F. forwards were the heroes of the game—especially Stirling, Yarranton and Greenwood, and the out- sides did nothing of which to be ashamed. Royal Air Force Team.—Full Back: S/L. A. A. Smailes (Middleton St. George); Three- quarters: F/O. T. H. Lodwig (St. Athan); Off. Cdt. J. Syme (Spitalgate); A/C. K. R. Mac- Donald (Nuneham Park); A/C. G. M. Griffiths (Upwood); Half-backs: F/O M. R. Channer (Syerston); L. A/C. D. C. Wilcox (Innes-worth); Forwards: F/O. P. O'K. Plumpton (South Cerney); F/O. A. H. Renine (Horsham St. Faith); F/L. R. V. Stirling* (Cranwell); F/L. P. G. Yarranton (A.M.); F/O. L. P. Shelley (Hereford); Off. Cdt. J. Greenwood* (Spitalgate); S/L. R. H. G. Weighill* (Capt.) (Staff Coll.); F/O. P. S. Collingridge (Cran well). * International. Air Ministry Appointment IN May, A. Cdre. J. L. F. Fuller-Good, C.B.E., who has returned from Malaya, will become Director of Personal Services (A) at the Air Ministry. A. Cdre. Fuller-Good went to Malaya in
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