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Royal Air Force Historical Society ROYAL AIR FORCE HISTORICAL SOCIETY JOURNAL 49 2 The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the contributors concerned and are not necessarily those held by the Royal Air Force Historical Society. First published in the UK in 2010 by the Royal Air Force Historical Society All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing. ISSN 1361 4231 Printed by Windrush Group Windrush House Avenue Two Station Lane Witney OX28 4XW 3 ROYAL AIR FORCE HISTORICAL SOCIETY President Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Michael Beetham GCB CBE DFC AFC Vice8President Air 2arshal Sir Frederick Sowrey KC3 C3E AFC Committee Chairman Air 7ice82arshal N 3 3aldwin C3 C3E 7ice8Chairman -roup Captain 9 D Heron O3E Secretary -roup Captain K 9 Dearman FRAeS 2embership Secretary Dr 9ack Dunham PhD CPsychol A2RAeS Treasurer 9 3oyes TD CA 2embers Air Commodore - R Pitchfork 23E 3A FRAes ,in Commander C Cummin s :9 S Cox Esq 3A 2A :A72 P Dye O3E 3Sc(En ) CEn AC-I 2RAeS :-roup Captain 2 I Hart 2A 2A 2Phil RAF :,in Commander C Hunter 22DS RAF Editor & Publications ,in Commander C - 9efford 23E 3A 2ana er :Ex Officio 4 CONTENTS THE PRE8,AR DE7E.OP2ENT OF DO2INION AIR 7 FORCES by Sebastian Cox ANS,ERIN- THE @O.D COUNTRABSB CA.. by , Cdr 11 Colin Cummin s ‘REPEAT, PLEASE!’ PO.ES AND CCECHOS.O7AKS IN 35 THE 3ATT.E OF 3RITAIN by Peter Devitt A..IES AT ,ARE THE RAF AND THE ,ESTERN 51 EUROPEAN AIR FORCES, 1940845 by Stuart Hadaway 2ORNIN- G&A 76 INTERNATIONA. F.AIN- TRAININ- by , Cdr 9eff 13 9efford CFS E0A2ININ- ,IN- AND ITS ,ORK O7ERSEAS, 106 1917819 by -p Capt Tom Eeles .OAN SER7ICE ,ITH THE SU.TAN OF O2ANBS AIR 117 FORCE by -p Capt -eoff 3rindle A PERSONA. ACCOUNT OF SER7ICE ,ITH SOAF IN 125 THE DHOFAR ,AR by , Cdr Denis -rey RAF ASSOCIATED O7ERSEAS -ROUND FORCES by Air 134 Cdre 2ickey ,itherow AFTERNOON G&A 151 C.OSIN- RE2ARKS H A72 -eor e 3lack 154 FEED3ACK 155 3OOK RE7IE,S 157 5 SELECTED ABBREVIATIONS AAFCE Allied Air Forces Central Europe A2.CD Active 2atrix .iquid Crystal Display AOC Air Officer Commandin ATC Air Traffic Control A,2 Australian ,ar 2emorial 3AC 3ritish Aircraft Corporation 3AE 3ritish Aerospace 3ATT 3ritish Army Trainin Team CAS Chief of the Air Staff CENTO Central Treaty Or anisation COIN Counter Insur ency CSOAF Commander Sultan of OmanBs Air Force DF-A Day Fi hter -round Attack DOD Department of Defense EATS Empire Air Trainin Scheme E.AS Ellinikos Laïkos Apeleftherotikos Stratos (-reek PeopleIs .iberation Army) FC Fi hter Control -PS/INAS -lobal Positionin System/Inertial Nav8Attack System HCU Heavy Conversion Unit H2- Her 2ajestyBs -overnment IS Internal Security .OA .ocal Overseas Allowance OR3AT Order of 3attle PDRA PeopleIs Democratic Republic of Aemen PF.O Popular Front for the .iberation of Oman and the Arabian -ulf GFI Gualified Flyin Instructor G,I Gualified ,eapons Instructor RAF2 Royal Air Force 2useum (at Hendon) RCDS Royal Colle e of Defence Studies RP Rocket Projectile SAF SultanBs Armed Forces SARAH Search And Rescue And Homin SAR3E Search and Rescue 3eacon Equipment SAS Special Air Service SASO Senior Air Staff Officer STC Strike Command TNA The National Archives (at Kew) 6 THE ROYAL AIR FORCE AN INTERNATIONAL DIMENSION RAF MUSEUM, HENDON, 7 APRIL 010 WELCOME ADDRESS BY THE SOCIETY$S CHAIRMAN Air Vice-Marshal Nigel Bald.in CB CBE .adies and entlemen H ood mornin H ood to see you all. For the first time in nearly fifteen years, I need to chan e my introductory sentence. Since we last met, Dr 2ichael Fopp has retired as Director -eneral of the 2useum here. Fortunately, he has accepted our invitation to be our speaker immediately after the A-2 at the RAF Club on ,ednesday evenin 16 9une when he will talk about the 3attle of 3ritain. I will then have the opportunity to thank him properly for all the help he has iven the Society over the years, not least in makin the 2useum available for our meetin s. 3ut today I would like to thank Air 7ice82arshal Peter Dye H who is holdin the fort here as the actin D- until a successor is appointed. Thank you Peter and your splendid staff at the 2useum who help us so much. Our Chairman today, Air 7ice82arshal -eor e 3lack, is a military aviator par excellence. A National Service pilot, he flew 7ampires, Sea Hawks with the Fleet Air Arm, and in 1961 was with No 74 Sqn as the .i htnin was introduced. He commanded @Treble OneB Squadron and then No 5 Sqn at 3inbrook H which is a story in itself (and I speak as the ADC to the AOC 11 -roup at the timeL). In RAF -ermany, he commanded ,ildenrath and was closely involved with the policy and concept of operations for the Harrier Force. After a tour as Commandant of the Royal Observer Corps, he finished his RAF career as Deputy Chief of Operations at HG Allied Air Force Central Europe at Ramstein. Unusually by modern RAF standards, he has over 1,000 flyin hours on 165 different types of aircraft. He knows enou h about the RAFBs involvement over the years with allies and what we are callin today @dominionB air forces to keep us all on track today. -eor e, you have control. 7 PRE-WAR DEVELOPMENT OF DOMINION AIR FORCES Se0astian Co1 Sebastian Cox joined the Air Historical Branch in 1984, and has been its Head since 1996. He has written widely on the RAF and air power, including editing the Studies in Air Power series published by Frank Cass, and has lectured to military and civilian audiences as far afield as the USA, Canada, France, Germany, New Zealand and elsewhere. Air 2arshal thank you. .adies and entlemen, it is always a reat pleasure to address members of the society and today I have been asked to talk on the relationship between the RAF and the dominion air forces in the inter8war period. In the twenty minutes available I do not think I can really properly do justice to the full extent of the co8 operation and assistance between the Royal Air Force and the major dominion air forces, namely Australia, Canada, New Cealand and South Africa. I will therefore adopt the approach of lookin in some detail at one air force, in this case the Royal Australian Air Force which was the lar est and most important, and ivin you an indication at the end of the lecture of the similarities and differences which pertain to the other dominions. The relationship between the Royal Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force oes back to the shared combat experience of the First ,orld ,ar. In April 1911, with the First ,orld ,ar still ra in and victory apparently far from si ht, and doubtless with the RAFBs creation in mind, a perspicacious Australian soldier, 2ajor -eneral 9 - .e e, pressed his overnment to establish an air service and to do so without delay.1 Almost at the same time as .e eBs proposal went forward a su estion was also made for the creation of an Australian naval air service. This latter proposal, however, was lar ely the work of an RAF officer, ,in Commander H A 2a uire, ex8Royal Naval Air Service, who was air service adviser to the Australian Naval 3oard.2 These two parallel proposals were then considered by a number of committees and sub8committees on which both 2a uire and .e e served. It will come as no surprise that the army and navy officers be an to squabble over the respective service allocations. It was 1 2a uire, possibly supported by another RAF officer, . A K 2urray, who first proposed to one of the sub8committees the formation of a separate air service. To cut a lon story short the 2a uire proposal went to the Australian Defence Council, which in 9anuary 1919 concurred in turn, and authorised the creation of the air service committee with authority to spend up to M500,000 on the new service.3 2a uire, a Royal Air Force officer, was thus the key player a itatin effectively for the creation of the RAAF from an early sta e. As the air adviser to the RAN, he was in a unique position not only to advance the cause of a separate air force, but also simultaneously to ensure that there was no concerted naval opposition to it. As the RAN Naval 3oard neither endorsed nor rejected his proposals, he seems as their air adviser to have devised policy himself. ,ithout 2a uire it seems unlikely that the separate RAAF would have ot off the round. ,e may surmise that his motive in proposin an independent RAAF was to ensure a slice of the aviation cake for the RAN. One area in which 2a uire fou ht hard but failed was in attemptin to ensure that the administration of the air service would be free from control by either the military or naval boards. The irony here is that the RAN was in due course to re ret the formation of a separate service and within a few years was to do its level best to create a separate Australian fleet air arm. The reason bein an act of sin ular enerosity from 3ritain which was to underpin the RAAF and indeed the other dominion air services in their early years.
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