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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 2223.PDF
192 E 1 f FIIGHT, 6 August 1954 AT HALTON during the passing-out parade of the 69th Entry: (Left) A handshake of congratulation from Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur P. M. Sanders, the reviewing officer, for Cpl. App. E. H. James, winner of the Quinton Trophy for the best ex-A.T.C. cadet. (Centre) Air App. Syed AH Raza, best Pakistan apprentice, who won the Azhar Shield. (Right) F/Sgt. App. T. G. Gordon, best all-round apprentice, with an armful of prizes. SERVICE AVIATION . . . for position and E-boat and submarine attacks against a series of convoys. U.S. Navy Neptunes based at Malta carried out anti-submarine, reconnaissance and mine-laying operations, while air attacks on the island were warded off by Vam pires of the Australian Fighter Wing, also based' on the Island. Dog-fights took place over the Messina Straits between Italian Air Force Mustangs and Lightings and Australian Vampires. The climax of the exercise involved an amphibious landing on Malta by an Orange task force. The force was first spotted and shadowed by Neptunes, and then attacked by destroyers and E-boats, and defended by cruisers and destroyers. A sharp engagement took place on the night of the 22nd, and at 0445 hr on the 23rd the Orange forces stormed ashore. Italian Air Force fighters provided air cover, while Australian Vampires strafed the invading force, which was made up of 800 men of No. 42 Royal Marine Com mando and French commandos. Shackle- tons operated throughout the exercise from Greek bases on the Orange side. In tbe 16 months since the Combined Mediterranean Command was formed, excellent progress has been made in inter national co-operation, and Lord Ismay, who visited the Malta headquarters with the North Atlantic Council during most of the exercise, expressed great satisfac tion at the results achieved. After the exercise, ships and crews of all six navies foregathered at Valetta to discuss and assess the exercise. Each ship had carried a neutral umpire throughout the exercise, to adjudicate on the results of each engagement. R.N.Z.A.F. Queen's Colour Paraded '"THE Colour presented to the Royal New -*- Zealand Air Force by the,:<3ueen dur ing her Commonwealth toprVas paraded last month for the first tirfe at the opening of the New Zealand'Parliament. P/O. R. M. Hancock. ^N.Z.A.F., a recent graduate of thejcA.F. College, Cranwell, was the coloujroearer. A guard of honour was provideo and there was a fly-past by Vampires «f No. 75 Squadron, R.N.Z.A.F., based at Ohakea. R.A.F. Appointment I T is announced by the Air Ministry that A. Cdre. G. P. Chamberlain, C.B., O.B.E., is to become A.O.A. at Fighter Command. He will assume fhe acting rank of air vice-marshal. Since April 1953 A.V-M. Chamberlain has been Commandant of the R.A.F. Staff College, Andover; previously he com manded the Transport Wiag of the Middle East Air Force. In thesearly months of the war he was signals staff officer at H.Q. No. 18 Group and later commanded the Fighter Interception ;Unit until going to Coastal Command, also as a signals staff officer. In his next ^-appointment he was seconded to the Royal Australian Air Force on signals duties for a year and on his returning to England towards the end of 1944 was appointed Chief Signals Officer of Transport Command on the Empire and trunk, routes and in the European theatres of war. In 1947 he was seconded from the R.A.F. to fill a new appointment at the Ministry of Civil Aviation as Director of Civil Air Operations, a post he held for nearly two years until he went to the Imperial Defence College. A.V-M. Chamberlain was commissioned from R.A.F. College, Cranwell, in 1925. Tonga Air Lift AN airlift of nearly 8Q.000 lb of army - equipment from New Zealand to Tonga was recently completed in just over a week in the BristBf Freighters of No. 41 Transport Squadron, R.N.Z.A.F. The materials transported constituted basic training equipment for a local defence force now being organized by the Tongan government. The Alamein Memorial T HE Alamein Memorial, which is being built by the Imperial War Graves Commission in the battlefield cemetery in the Western Desert, is now nearing com pletion. It wiP' be unveiled by Field Marshal Lord Montgomery on October 24th, the twelfth anniversary of the battle of El Alamein, in the presence of repre sentatives of the armies and air forces in which the men whose names the memorial bears were serving. The Commission finds it impossible to extend invitations to all the relatives to be present, but photo graphs of the ceremony and of individual name panels will be available. The memorial has been constructed to the design of Sir Hubert Worthington, O.B.E., A.R.A., and consists of a cloister on the northern side of the battlefield cemetery at El Alamein in the Western Desert. Within this cloister are inscribed the names of 11,945 officers and men of the land and air forces of the Common wealth who have no known grave. Of these names 3,200 are of rjien of the air forces who were killed during operations from bases in the Eastera Mediterranean, the Near East and East Africa. A short avenue frogl the main desert road leads to a forecourt, where three arches open into the^ cloister; at each side a broad flight of ou|8ide steps leads to the roof which commgnds a fine view of the surrounding country and the sea. Over the entrance appear these words: — Within this 'cloister are inscribed the names of the soldiers- and airmen of the British Commonwealth and Empire who died fighting on land or in the air where two continents met and to fihotn the fortune of war denied a known and*honoured grave. With tlfeir fellows who rest in this cemetery, with their comrades in arms of the Royal Navy and viitjt the seamen of the Merchant Navy they preserved for the west the link with the east and tiirned the tide of war. 1939 194S The cloister opens to the south upon a series of terraces and flower-beds leading down to the cemetery and to the Stone of Remembrance and, beyond it, the Cros' of Sacrifice found in Commonwealth %v& cemeteries all over the world. Squadron Tie W^E are informed that No*. 141 ?) * * Squadron ties are now available. e design is a blue ground Hjfuth an all^c '* pattern of leopards' beads in silver. ' are in two qualitjpS, silk (£1) and rs (15s). RequesHTshould be addressed to No. 141 S^iadron, c/o Informal n Branch, Air Ministry, Whitehall Gard" «> S.W.I.
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