AIR TRAINING CORPS

Southland Times, Issue 24662, 6 February 1942, Page 4

AIR TRAINING CORPS

CITY SQUADRON TO PARADE TONIGHT

AIRCRAFT WILL BE PART OF EQUIPMENT An aircraft is shortly to be flown to Invercargill to form part of the equipment of the No. 12 Squadron of the Air Training Corps, which will have its first full parade tonight at the Southland Technical College. Squadron Leader W. H. Shepherd, South Island Divisional Commander of the Corps, arrived in Invercargill yesterday to complete arrangements for the parade. He was accompanied by Mr R. O. Johnson, physical welfare officer fox - the Otago area and a former Empire Games representative, who will arrange for .the physical training of members of the Corps. Pilot Officer R. P. Hull, area adjutant for Otago and Southland, will arrive in the city by this afternoon’s train. Squadron-Leader Shepherd, who attended the initial parade of No. 15 Squadron of the Corps at Timaru last Friday, said in an interview yesterday that he had come to make final arrangements for the establishment of the Invercargill squadron. RAPID GROWTH EXPECTED “The squadron will begin with a strength of nearly 100,” he added. “But once the young men get into their Air Force uniforms and the value of the training they are to receive becomes generally known, we should not be long in reaching the full squadron establishment of 200. The officers in charge of the Invercargill Squadron are keenly interested in the new organization and have just returned from an intensive course of training at Wigram. There is no reason why the A.T.C. in Invercargill should not be the most efficient unit in the Dominion.”

Squadron Leader Shepherd said that the course of instruction would be carried out at the Technical College and would cover not only drill and physical training but subjects like airmanship, theory of flight, aircraft recognition, armament, first aid and navigation. The Board of Governors had generously placed the Technical College and its staff at the disposal of the corps. In addition to an aircraft, a number of aircraft guns would form part of the equipment of the squadron. Squadron Leader Shepherd ended by expressing his thanks to all who had helped in the establishment of the corps in Invercargill. INVERCARGILL OFFICERS Flying Officer P. I. Maclean will be in command of the Invercargill squadron of the A.T.C. Flying Officer Maclean formerly held an Army commission and played a prominent part in the Territorial Forces in Dunedin. Until recently he commanded a company of the Invercargill battalion of the Home Guard. Pilot Officers E. H. J. Preston and R. Lund will command the two flights of the squadron, and Pilot Officer D. A. McDonald will be the squadron adjutant. These officers were also drawn from the Invercargill Home Guard.

A recruiting office for the Air Training Corps and the Royal New Zealand Air Force will shortly be opened in the city.