FAR EAST AIR FORCE

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27641, 23 April 1955, Page 8

FAR EAST AIR FORCE

COMMANDER TO VISIT NEW ZEALAND

AIR MARSHAL F. J FRESSANGES

The Commander in Chief of the British Far East Air Force (Air Marshal F. J. Fressanges, C. 8., R.A.F.) will arrive at the R.N.Z.A.F station. Wigram, on April 27, in a Hastings aircraft of the Royal Air Force Transport Command He will act as reviewing officer for the passingout ceremony of an aircrew course and will then return to Wellington. He will be accompanied by his wife, his aide-de-camp (Flight Lieutenant R. G. Drice) and his personal staff officer (Squadron Leader J. D. Thirlwell, D.F.C.). On Anzac Day the party will arrive in New Zealand at the R.N.Z.AJf. station, Ohakea, to begin an eightday visit which will include official meetings wjth the ■ Prime Minister (Mr Holland), the High Commissioner for the United Kingdom, the Chiefs of Staff of the Army, Navy and Air Force, and the Mayor of Wellington. He will also attend a meeting of the Defence Council and a conference of the New Zealand Chiefs of Staff.

In Auckland on April 28 the party will stay at Government House as guests of the Governor-General (Sir Willoughby Norrie). Two days will be spent in the Rotorua-Wairakei area. The Air Marshal has been visiting Australia, his first visit there since he took over command of the Far East Air Force some time ago. His command spreads from Ceylon to Japan, with headquarters in Singapore. Since he entered the Royal Air Force College, Cranwell, in 1921, Air Marshal Fressanges has largely been concerned with bomber and transport squadrons. At the beginning of the war he was a wing commander commanding No. 210 (Flying Boat) Squadron in the Battle of the Atlantic and' early in 1941 he was attached to the United States Atlantic fleet as adviser on anti-submarine operations. In 1941 he became Deputy Director of Overseas Operations and rose to the post of Director in 1943. He was Air Officer Commanding No. 47 Group, Transport Command, from 1944 to 1946, in charge of carrying all the British delegations to the Casablanca, Cairo, Teheran and Yalta conferences. In 1946 he returned to the Air Ministry as Director of Operations and early in 1950 was promoted to Air Vice-Marshal and posted to Aden as Air Officer Commanding, British Forces, Aden. Between that post and his present one he was Assistant Chief of the Air Staff (Intelligence).