Victory day flypast

Victory day flypast

Item 1 is a letter from 'Tedder' to all participants in the Victory Day flypast.
Photograph 1 is a flypast of 12 Lancasters taken from the ground. It is captioned 'Squadron triangle and Trafalgar Square' and underneath 'Nelson turned his back but no doubt someone was looking'.
Item 2 is a newspaper cutting referring to 35 Squadron and with an air-to-air photograph of six Lancasters over London. The cutting has the aircraft and Captains annotated in handwriting.

1946-06-12

One letter, one b/w photograph and one newspaper cutting on a scrapbook page.

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SMathersRW55201v10008

[underlined] D.G.P.1. [/underlined] Copy: - A.N.P.

C.A.S. wishes the following message to be sent to all R.A.F Units and formations which took part in the Victory Parade:-

“I wish to offer my very sincere congratulations to all those, on the ground and in the air, officers and other ranks, men and women, who showed the world on Victory Day that the spirit, the discipline and the skill of the Royal Air Force is as high as it ever was.
TEDDER.
Marshall of the Royal Air Force”

[underlined] 12th June, 1946. [/underlined]

[signature]
[underlined] P.A. to C.A.S. [/underlined]

-2-

[underlined] P.A. to C.A.S. [/underlined][inserted] [initials] 14/6 [/inserted]

C.A.S’s message has been signalled to all Commanders-in-Chief at home and overseas. It has also been sent to the Commandant R.O.C., D.G.G.D. Matron-in-Chief and D.W.A.A.F.

Arrangements have also been made for it to be promulgated in A.P.Os.

[signature]
(D.HARRIES)
J.O.P.( I )

[underlined] 14.6.46 [/underlined]

[page break]

[underlined] SQUADRON TRIANGLE and TRAFALAR SQUARE. [/underlined]
[photograph]

[underlined] NELSON TURNED HIS BACK BUT NO DOUBT SOMEONE WAS LOOKING. [/underlined]
[inserted] A – Mike Beetham E. Gil Hampson. G. [indecipherable name]
R – Robby Robinson P Shorty Harris
[indecipherable words] – S. Paddy Leadon. L Frank Cheshire. [/inserted]

THE SPHERE
[photograph]
THE LANCASTERS FLY OVER CENTRAL LONDON – MACHINES OF NO. 35 SQUADRON ABOVE THE CITY AS THEY HEADED FROM FAIRLOP AERODROME TO THE SALUTING-BASE IN THE MALL: A prelude to the fly-past which, despite the increasingly poor visibility, was a spectacular feature of the Victory Day celebrations and was rehearsed beforehand with the most exacting efficiency. The Lancasters – machines which played such a vital part in the distruction of German industry – were led by Wing Commander A.J.L. Craig, D.S.O., D.F.C., the R.A.F.’s youngest Wing Commander. The great dissimilarities in the speeds of the various types of aircraft in the procession – they ranged from 150 m.p.h. to the 350-m.p.h. cruising speed of the jets – was a problem, but this was solved by so timing the convergence of the units that when the Hurricane was over the saluting-base the Meteors were still 65 miles away