NEW CHIEF OF AIR STAFF

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 28 October 1941, Page 3

NEW CHIEF OF AIR STAFF

SERVICE IN MANY LANDS ( OMMOl)ORE GODDARD’S CAREER London, Sept. 23. \ A tour of the Gorman air stations; and air training establishments in 1937,, and a study of the air fighting in Spain j during the civil war. are among the varied experiences of Air Commodore} R. V Goddard, C.8.E., who is to sue- i ceed Air Commodore If. W. L. Saunders as Chief of the Air Stall in New | Zealand. Widely known for his broadcasts, Air Commodore Goddard was to have studied at the Imperial Defence Col- | lege if the war had not broken out. ille will travel to New Zealand via | Canada, where he will see New Zeai landers training, and Singapore, where ; he will confer with Sir Robert Brooke- : Popham. He will also visit Australia. He will be accompanied by his wife, aj i grand daughter of General Inglis, deI fender of Lucknow, and two of his three children. 1 After being educated at the Royal Naval Colleges at Osborne and Dartj mouth, Air Commodore Goddard went |to sea in 1914 as a midshipman. He ■ served in H.M.S. Britannia with the Grand Fleet. j In 1915 he volunteered for special ! duties. An interview followed with Ad- | miral Lord Fisher. The special duties ! consisted of flying airships, to which ! aeroplane fuselage was attached, over | the Channel searching for U-boats. SERVICE IN IRAQ j Two years followed at Jesus College, Cambridge. Later he was appointed instructor to the Cambridge Air Squadron on formation. This squadron had the distinction of being the first of the university squadrons. Several New Zealanders were among the first members, including Squadron Leader I. C. Horton (Auckland), and D. H. F. Barnett, now a wing commander. After a year at the R.A.F. Staff College at Andover, Air Commodore Goddard went to Mosul, in Iraq, to command No. 30 Squadron. It was during this period, in 1930-31, that the British mandate for Iraq was being handed over to the Iraqis. The Kurds were reluctant to accept the change, and the R.A.F. was co operating with the Iraq Army in quelling trouble. At the conclusion of the operations against the Kurds, King Feisal presented him with the Order of the Rafidan (the equivalent of the D.S.O. in the Iraqian Army), for the part taken by the R.A.F. squadron. Back in England after two years in Mosul, Air Commodore Goddard was appointed chief instructor to the Officers’ Engineering School at Henlow. In 1936 he went to the Air Ministry to become deputy-director of Intelligence. It was during this period that, with Air Marshal Sir Christopher Courtney, Deputy-Chief of the Air Staff, he paid a ten-day visit to Germany, at the invitation of the German Air Ministry, to inspect German air stations and training establishments. In 1937 he went to Spain for a month at the invitation of Senor Prieto, the Republican War Minister. EVACUATION OF DUNKIRK When the war broke out he was appointed senior air steff officer to Ari Vice-Marshal Blount, who commanded the Air Component of the B.E.F. He went to France on 10th September, and remained there till 26th May. He was among the first of the Air Component to go to France, and the last to leave. He was responsible for co-ordinating | air operations during the evacuation of j Dunkirk. 1 Shortly afterward he was appointed Deputy-Director of Plans, and more re--1 cently he became Director of Military Co-Operation. In that post he was responsible for the formation and direc- i ; tion of the new Army Co-operation j Command. Air Commodore Goddard’s eldest son, John, aged 16, will remain in England at school. David, aged 14, and Jane, aged 12, will accompany their father and mother to New Zealand.