ROYAL AUSTRALIAN AIR FORCE

Southland Times, Issue 24238, 23 September 1940, Page 6

ROYAL AUSTRALIAN AIR FORCE

STRENGTH INCREASED TEN TIMES SYDNEY, September 20. During the first year of the war the Royal Australian Air Force has increased its strength nearly 10 times and raised its rate of enlistment of flying personnel more than 40 times. With the co-operation of the Civil Aviation Department, aerodromes available for operational duties have been increased by more than 100 to nearly 700. Training schools for the Empire air scheme, as distinct from permanent air force establishments, will number 21 by the end of the year, when more than half of the £2,500,000 originally allotted for training scheme buildings will have been spent. These achievements in Australia have been matched by those, of. the only squadron of the R.A.A.F. serving in the battle zone—the Sunderland flying-boat squadron with the British Coastal Command. This squadron has convoyed and patrolled over hundreds of thousands of miles round the British coasts, sunk many submarines and defeated enemy planes in air combats, with little loss. Development of the Empire training plan, in spite of delays in the receipt of training aircraft from England, has been the most remarkable phase of the war effort of Australia’s air arm. At the end of this month, five months after the first small batch of air crew personnel went into training, more than 2500 airmen will be undergoing their air education at the training schools. During this expansion, a large number of civilian pilots was enlisted in the R.A.A.F. as instructors, thus releasing permanent Air Force personnel for other duties. Other permanent men have been released from administrative duties by the enlistment of many officers who served in air forces during the 1914-18 war. Another important aid to brisker training has been the introduction of correspondence lessons and voluntary classes for air crew reservists, including instruction in the principles of navigation, ballistics, meteorology, mathematics and physics. ( : _==