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Aviation History
1967
1967 - 0033.PDF
FLIGHT International, 5 lanuary 1967 35 IMS "Victorious" was the centrepiece of probably the first-ever five-ship replenishment at sea ast month near Singapore, when she simultaneously took fluids from the RFA "Olynthus" and olid stores from the RFA "Reliant," to starboard and port respectively. On the flanks are the rigates "Cleopatra," taking oil, and "Leander" taking solids. Speed of the five-ship group was 6kt. Out of the picture RFA "Resurgent" was engaged with the GM destroyer "Hampshire" n a vertical replenishment trial, using an 814 Sqn Wessex, seen here astern of "Cleopatra" "Flight" photograph tAAF CANBERRAS MOVING TO VIETNAM i ROYAL AUSTRALIAN AIR FORCE Canberra squadron, 2 Sqn, at present at RAAF Jutterworth, Malaya, is being posted to Jouth Vietnam, increasing the size of the Australian task force there. This was innounced on December 22 by the Prime Minister, Mr Harold Holt. To replace the Canberras at Butter- ivorth, a squadron of Mirage III-Os will 3y in this year. Malaysian Government approval was necessary for the move of tight Canberras to South Vietnam; and the early stationing of Mirages at Butterworth, at least a year before such i deployment was expected, is seen as a reassurance by the Australian Govern- ment to Malaysia that her interests in SE Asia still extend beyond the Vietnam conflict. No 2 Sqn, which has been in Malaya |sinee 1958, was originally scheduled to be withdrawn to Australia in 1968, to make way for the stationing at Butter- worth of Mirages and F-llls. The Mirages, from RAAF Williamstown, NSW, will be the first to be deployed outside Australia. The current Australian air strength in Vietnam (writes Robert R. Rodwell, newly returned from an assignment in that country) comprises seven Caribous of 35 Sqn, eight Iroquois helicopters of 9 Sqn and 161 Ind Recce Fit, Australian Aviation Regiment, with six Sioux light helicopters and three Cessna 180 obser- vation aircraft. All these units are at present based at Vung Tau, near the mouth of the Saigon River, where an air- field is shared with US forces, but the Army flight is in the process of moving to nearby Ba Ria, the HQ of the Aus- tralian task force. RAAF personnel strength at Vung Tau numbers about 280 while the present strength of Australian land forces in Vietnam is about 4,500. No 9 Sqn is fully employed, as is 152 Fit, in giving close support to the Aus- tralian land forces. The Caribou force is employed on a variety of tasks in support of Australian, South Vietnamese and US forces. It flies a five-times-daily courier service between Vung Tau and Saigon, routeing through Luscombe Field, the Ba Ria airstrip. Every second day it flies a courier service for the 7th USAF to Nha Trang and Dalat, calling at a few special forces camps in between. This courier run alternates with a service over the Mekong Delta to Duong Dong, principally for the benefit of South Vietnamese forces. It also maintains a spare aircraft on instant availability for the 7th USAF and flies numerous special sorties in the area around Vung Tau. While the Vung Tau runway is being rebuilt to enable C-141s and other mammoth transports to land IDangling valiantly from a jackstay between "Victorious" (right) and "Olynthus" on an earlier replenishment was our photographer TomHamill, to achieve this striking wide-angle view. Vixens FAW.2s of 893 Sqn are spotted on the flight deck "Flight" photograph ••„ II! \ ^-, * • 7^
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