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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0881.PDF
FLIGHT, 28 June 1957 887 Sycamores of No. T94 Sqn., followed by a Whirlwind of No. 755, make a ceremonial progress over Singapore; while, below, eight No. 267 Sqn. Pioneers make an im- pressive line-up at Kuala Lumpur. FAR EAST AIR FORCE . . . types of feminine apparel from the Western fashion world.The police officers at Langkap were able to report tangible results from the security forces' campaign. One of the specialbranch officers said he had 21 ex-terrorists working under him and explained that surrender notes are received at a "post box"point beneath a fallen tree. Here the link between ground forces and psychological war-fare carried out by the "voice" and leaflet-dropping aircraft becomes clear. At Kuala Lumpur there are three yellow-paintedDakotas—belonging to No. 267 Sqn., and called (like the Gladia- tors on besieged Malta) Faith, Hope and Charity—which havefive Tannoy loudhailers slung in a cluster beneath the fuselage. These aircraft, like the Austers used for the same purpose, broad-cast to the terrorists in Malay, Tamil and three dialects of Chinese. Tape-recorded messages are generally used, but often a "live"broadcast is made when the situation demands it. Many sur- rendered terrorists have attributed their decision to hearing someof these broadcasts or reading some of the many thousand "sur- render pass or safe conduct" leaflets dropped by the R.A.F. Another interesting aspect of the work of the Far East Trans-port Wing is its employment of Whirlwinds and Sycamores in a wide variety of roles, the Sycamores of No. 194 Sqn.—whichare regarded with universal affection and operate from Ipoh and Kluang as well as from Kuala Lumpur—doing great workevacuating casualties and the Whirlwinds of No. 155 lifting troops, tracker dogs, freight and livestock and dropping para-troops. Like other aircraft in the Wing, these helicopters have performed duties which in the early days of the campaign werethought impossible. Great skill and care have to be exercised by the Sycamore pilots when landing in small jungle clearingswhere there is little or no room for manoeuvring and damage could so easily be done to the rotor blades. Of special interest,too, is the technique adopted by Whirlwind pilots in dropping paratroops. They fly at treetop level to determine the height ofthe trees, and then ascend to 800ft above them. On his down- wind run the pilot gives an "action warning" to the paratroops,then puts on a red light three seconds before the drop and a green one when it is due. The Whirlwind drops its paratroops whenflying at about 40 kt forward speed at right angles to the D.Z., so that they fall downwind into it and have scarcely any slipstreamwith which to contend. The paratroops carry with them, apSrt from weapons and "police pack" (of 40 lb or more) "abseiling"equipment which includes 200ft of canvas strop for descending from the tops of trees. Two important F.E.A.F. bases where there are no operationalactivities (as far as the anti-terrorist campaign goes) are Butter- worth, on the West coast of Malaya opposite Pulan Island, andHong Kong. At the latter a Venom Squadron (No. 45) is based for fighter defence, and there is a R.A.F. Regiment (Malaya)squadron and an R.A.F. signals unit. Butterworth is being extended by an R.A.A.F. Airfield Construction Unit, and maybecome a permanent R.A.A.F. base in Malaya. Similar con- structional work is going on on the other side of the IndianOcean, at Gan in the Maldive Islands. Gan is Britain's newest air staging post, on the site of a small air-strip built there duringthe war, but since then broken up and overgrown. Work started in February, and sometime next month should see the base readyto receive its first aircraft, medium transports like the Valetta and Bristol Freighter. In many ways Gan, over 1,800 miles (viaCar Nicobar) from Singapore, symbolizes the Far East Air Force —in its determination to carry out its tasks, in the vast distancesof its lines of communication, and in its immensely varied duties.
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