AIR CHIEF IN THE MIDDLE EAST

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 60, 16 August 1940, Page 2

AIR CHIEF IN THE MIDDLE EAST

’planes which are operating against Italy over Libya, Abyssinia, and Eritrea is an Australian, Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Longmore, K.C.B., C.B., D.S.O., whose headquarters are in Cairo. He is chief of the Middle East Command of the Royal Air Force and his territory ranges from Italian Libya to the frontiers of Syria, which is well within range of his long range Blenheims who have to patrol 500,000 square miles of country. As well as supporting troops, the ’planes of the M.E.C. keep contact with isolated outposts of soldiers, drop food, water, and munitions where they are needed, and raid enemy positions. Sir Arthur was born in New South Wales, and his flying certificate, No. 72, is the oldest held by any member of the man who has command of the

Royal Air Force. He was one of the first four naval officers to learn to fly. The training ‘planes were lent by a private owner, whose only stipulation was that no flying was to be done on Sundays. This sturdy Australian was instructor at a flying school in 1912 and trained many of the air aces of the last war. In 1914 he was sent to command the No. 1 Royal Naval Air Service at Dunkirk; later he took part in the Battle of Jutland and saw service in Italy. After the war Sir Arthur Longmore held a high command in Iraq, commanded the Air School at Cranwell, and then in 1939, he took over the training of the whole R.A.F. in Britain. In. May he was appointed to the Middle East Command. Sir Arthur has a host of foreign decorations, including two Italian ones presented by the Italian Government for his work on their behalf in the last war when he commanded their Adriatic Group.