AIR FORCE TO ARMY

Dominion, Volume 38, Issue 1, 26 September 1944, Page 4

AIR FORCE TO ARMY

Transfer Of Personnel Proceeding

REINFORCEMENTS FOR N.Z.E.F.

Dominion Special Service. AUCKLAND, September 25.

Numbers of men who are now being marched out of the Royal New Zealand Air Force following the Government’s decision to reduce the home establishment of the service, are being transferred to the 2nd New Ztyiland Expeditionary Force pool.- This means that they will be available for reinforcement drafts for overseas.

When the reduction of the Air Force was announced by the Prime Minister on August 23, it was stated that, some 2000 men would be released within the next few weeks following the announcement, and that further releases would occur as the progress of the reduction plan permitted. It was not reported what use the Government intended for these men.

Those being released appear to fall into several categories. There are numbers whose fitness and domestic status make them eligible for expeditionary force service. There are others who are not fit for overseas service, either with the Air, Force or with the Army, and there are others still, both of and below overseas- fitness standard, whose domestic status makes them ineligible for overseas Army service. It is impossible to estimate the number of men who have already been released by the Air Force. However, they appear to have reached very substantial numbers. The effect on some individual stations and other establishments has been most marked. With the transfers which are being made to the 2nd N.Z.E.F. pool, the pendulum has swung to the other end of its arc. Last year thousands of men serving in the Army with the home defence forces were transferred to the Air Force. Now, undisclosed but not comparable numbers arc being marched out of the Air Force and being made available to the Army. Au important difference, apart from the numbers, is, that only men eligible for the expeditionary force are being so transferred. The majority of the men who went from the Army to the Air Force were not fit for overseas service.