English reunion for famous squadron

Press, 19 August 1978, Page 15

English reunion for famous squadron

New Zealanders who served in a wartime Royal Air Force squadron recognised as having a record unsurpassed by any other squadron in Bomber Command will meet in Eng’ land this month. They are all members of the famed No. 75 (New Zealand) Squadron that flew with Bomber Command throughout the war and now exists today as a squadron of the Royal New Zealand Air Force. Ninety-three former aircrew will arrive in England on August 25 for a three-day reunion centered on Cambridge—the first reunion to be held outside New Zealand. Four hundred wartime aircrew will be reunited. They will dedicate a memorial in the English village of Mepal where the squadron operated from 1943 until the end of the war. A memorial service will be held in the nearby twelfth century Ely Cathedral.

No. 75 Squadron was first formed as an R.A.F. unit at Goldington in October, 1916. It was disbanded in June, 1919, after having served as a home defence squadron for two years and nine months.

The squadron was reformed at Driffield in March, 1937, as a bomber squadron, and until April, 1940, was engaged mainly in the training of bomber crews. Then began its association with, and eventually its absorption bv. New’ Zealand and the R.N.Z.A.F. In 1938, the New Zea= land Government ordered 30 Wellington bombers for the R.N.Z.A.F., the first of

which was scheduled for delivery in August, 1939. A conversion and ferry flight had been formed under Squadron Leader M. W. Buckley at Marham in June, 1939. With the outbreak Of war, the Government placed the aircraft at the disposal of Britain and on April 1, 1940, No 75 (N.Z.) Squadron, R.A.F., came into existence.

In the course of the war. No. 75 Squadron flew a total of 8150 sorties, totalling 41,247 hours, during which 21,630 tons of bombs and 2344 mines were dropped. A total of 45 enemy aircraft were almost certainly destroyed. Decorations to squadron members included a Victoria Cross (Sergeant J- A.

Ward), six Distinguished Service Orders, 88 Distinguished Flying Crosses, four bars to Distinguished Flying Crosses, 17 Distinguished Flying Medals, and two Conspicuous Gallantry Medals. At the end of the war, the Air Ministry advised that as No. 75 (N.Z.) Squadron, R.A.F., was to be disbanded, the number

would be available for another squadron. The number was offered to the R.N.Z.A.F. so that the exploits of the wartime squadron might be perpetuated. The decision to renum* ber No. 2 Bomber-Recon-naissance Squadron as an R.N.Z.A.F. unit was approved by the Minister of Defence in December,

1945. Notification of the change of number was promulgated in October, 1946. Equipped with Mosquito FB6 aircraft, No. 75 Squadron was based in Ohakea and then, in May 1952, when Mosquitoes were placed in storage, the unit began to re-equip with Vampire aircraft. The squadron remained at

Ohakea until July, 1958, when it reverted to its bomber role and was reequipped with Canberra B2 aircraft. Crews who had trained in Canberras in Australia and the United Kingdom uplifted their aircraft at Coningsby, Lincolnshire, and flew them to Tengah, in Singapore, where the squadron was to be based.

The squadron then participated in the campaign against terrorists in the Malayan jungle, carrying out the unit’s first offensive missions since the close of the Second World War. A change in defence policy dictated the cessation of the agreement whereby Canberras were hired from the R.A.F., and

in January, 1962, No. 75 Squadron disposed of its aircraft and withdrew to New Zealand, reforming at Ohakea as a bomber conversion unit equipped with Vampire TH and Canberra Tl 3 aircraft. Its principal role was the training of replacement crews for No. 14 Bomber Squadron. Mid-1963 saw a further

change when a number of Vampire FGAS aircraft were brought out of storage and the Canberras handed over to No. 14 Squadron. No. 75 Squadron operated Vampire FGAS and TH aircraft as a jet conversion and f i g h t e r-ground attack squadron until May, 1970, when the Vampires were passed to No. 14 Squadron and No. 75 Squadron received A4K and TA4K Skyhawk aircraft. The Squadron’s primary role is close air support. The Squadron participates annually in exercises in Australia and in South-East Asia. Since 1975. the Squadron has included a visit to Indonesia as well as to Singapore and Malaysia in the South-East 'Asian annual deployment exercise. In 1977, the Squadron deployed to Fiji for the first time and earlier this year took part in a largescale maritime exercise in Hawaii. Among those attending this mcmth’s reunion in England will be three former war-time squadron commanders — Air Vice Marshal Cyril Kay (former patron of the No. 75 Squadron Association), Group Captain Micha”! Wyatt, and Group Captain Roy Max (the chairman of the reunion committee in London); Group Captain Michael Wasse (commanding officer of wartime R.A.F., Mepal); Wing Commander F. J. (Popeye) Lucas, and Squadron Leader W. J. R. Scollay (president of the No. 75 (New Zealand) Squadron Association). j