RAF 100 a Personal View
THE ROYAL AIR FORCE AT 100
A PERSONAL VIEW by Group Captain Patrick Tootal OBE DL RAF (Retd) Hon Secretary of the Battle of Britain Memorial Trust CIO and the Battle of Britain Fighter Association and Founder DefenceSynergia Member
On the 1 April 2018 the Royal Air Force celebrated its centenary. I am proud to have served in the Royal Air Force for a third of its existence, 33 and a bit years. This dates me! Looking in my logbook, I flew a Chipmunk basic training aircraft from RAF Colerne, near Bath to RAF West Malling and return on 1 April 1968, the 50th Anniversary of the RAF. I had to avoid RAF Odiham in Hampshire both ways as it was the location of the 50th Anniversary of the RAF celebrations. I was not invited! I was only a lowly Flight Lieutenant. I still remember running upstairs in “Costas” to file my return flight plan. (The original control tower has been sympathetically refurbished and is a business centre with a Costa coffee bar at Kings Hill the former RAF West Malling) What follows is my personal view of the world’s first independent air force at 100. (more…)
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