AIR FORCE EXPANSION

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 149, 27 June 1938, Page 6

AIR FORCE EXPANSION

AUCKLAND SQUADRON AN EXCELLENT RESPONSE (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, June 26. Under the scheme for the expansion of aerial defence, a Territorial squadron of the Royal New Zealand Air Force will shortly be formed in Auckland. Over the weekend an examination board considered 40 applications for admission from pilots and more than 100 from skilled tradesmen who sought positions as airmen. i The chairman of the board, WingCommander L. M. Isitt, stated that the standard of the men who were volunteering for service was excellent. According to a recent announcement by the Minister of Defence (the Hon. F. Jones) the squadron will have an eventual strength of 18 officers and 120 airmen, and, as in the case of the Wellington urjit, the equipment will consist in the first instance of Blackburn Baffin aircraft. Reconnaissance and other coastal defence duties will comprise the major part of the training, and, in order to provide specialist instruction to a selected personnel, arrangements have been made to secure headquarters in the city, where night meetings will be held. The number of aeroplanes with which the squadron will be equipped is not yet fully known, but it is anticipated that it will be of equal strength to the Wellington unit. There is no permanent arrangement yet announced for a base for the squadron, but it is stated that it will temporarily operate from the Hobsonville base.