RE-EQUIPPING R.N.Z.A.F.

Evening Star, Issue 25994, 8 January 1947, Page 8

RE-EQUIPPING R.N.Z.A.F.

EIGHTY MOSQUITO AIRCRAFT DELIVERY IH BATCHES OF TEN (llec. 8. a.m.) MELBOURNE, Jail. 6. According to the British Army and 11.A.F. liaison information service in Melbourne, the United Kingdom is supplying Mosquito aircraft to reequip the R.N.Z.A.F. The first batch of 10 new Mosquito Mark VI. fighterbombers is already on its way. They are being delivered by two-men air crews of No. 1 ferry unit of the It.A.F. Transport Command. The officer in charge of the first 10 is Squadronleader P. S. Anderson, a New Zealander. Eighty more will follow, of which 50 will be reconditioned machines. They will be ferried in monthly batches of 10. In February 15 R.N.Z.A.F. air crews, will arrive in Britain to take over the ferrying from the R.A.F. Each of these crews will do two ferry trips to New Zealand. The aircraft will be flown singly without formation. The journeys will be made in daylight in 12 stages over 10 or 12 days via Libya, Palestine, India, Burma, Singapore, Java, Darwin, and Sydney. The last stage—Sydney to ■ Ohakea—will be the longest, a hop of 1,200 miles. [Fifteen Mosquito flying crews will leave Ohakea on Friday for Whenuapai, and will travel during the weekend via Australia and Singapore to the United Kingdom, where they will pickup the Mosquito aircraft for use in the Dominion v and fly them to New Zealand for No. 75 Squadron. Commanding the squadron, which is based at . Ohakea, is Wing-commander J. E. Watts, A.F.C., who will 5 remain in New Zealand for organisation purposes. Squadron-leader 0. H. Baigent, D. 5.0., D.F.C., will command the ferry flight. When the crews, return from England they hope to bring with them mementoes_ of No. 75 Squadron which have remained at the squadron’s last English headquai-ters.]