AIR RECONNAISSANCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 December 1941, Page 8

AIR RECONNAISSANCE

PROTECTING AUSTRALIA’S COASTLINE.

In view of the Pacific situation Australia is able to take some comfort from her screen of advanced reconnaissance bases, where patrols have been operating for some time in conjunction with Lockheed Hudson Bomber reconnaissance and Catalina flying boats from the United States of America.

The Catalinas were chosen primarily for their tremendous range. Australia is a country of vast spaces, and is surrounded by vast expanses of ocean. The Catalina can do all that is required for ocean patrol when journeys of 2,000 miles or more must be regarded as routine. Well armed for defence, provided with all comforts for the crew, the Catalinas can remain in the air for 30 hours. They can reach Australia’s remotest bases and return without refuelling. The taking into service of these Catalinas has enabled Australia to establish a screen of reconnaissance bases as a buffer against invasion. The new stations include both land and seaplane bases, but the Catalinas are the longest-ranged aircraft used. They have made possible the maintenance of intense and comprehensive reconnaissance of waters in which Australia has a vital interest. Their establishment is an important precautionary measure against possible unheralded entry of enemy forces into Australian waters. The scheme plans for 78 squadrons, each squadron to consist of two to four flights of 50 boys each. The initial goal is 15,600 boys in preparation for the R.A.A.F. There are about 190,000 between 16 and 18 in Australia, and for the scheme to succeed, one in every 12 or 13 must be a potential airman. There is little doubt that it will succeed. When England asked for 100,000 boys for her Air Training Corps, the response was 200,000 or two in every seven. A year may show Australia’s A.T.C. has been planned along conservative lines. The scheme is democratic. The Air Force wants the cream of Australian youth and the two essential requirements are physical fitness and capacity' to learn. From the beginning, the boys will be roughly grouped according to their probable functions in the Air Force. Boys preliminarily selected for air-crew must learn matematics, navigation, Morse code, aircraft identification and the rudiments of administration.

Taking it all round the potential ground staff will have an easier time. The boys who will become wireless operators and mechanics, instrument repairers, electricians and motor transport mechanics will have dabbled with wireless sets or internal combustion engines before they joined the A.T.C. All have been asked to give honourable assurances that, when they graduate from the A.T.C., they will apply for enlistment with the R.A.A.F. But this assurance does not bind them. It is up to the boys to enlist freely—and there is little doubt that those who pass tjae tests will do so,