Far East Air Force Casualty Evacuation Flight
The Far East Air Force's Casualty Evacuation Flight was unique in that it was the RAF's first operational helicopter unit - if you except 529 Sqn's brief flirtation with the Hoverfly I in 1945 and 657 (AOP) Sqn's with the Hoverfly II in 1946. It was created in response to a request made to the Chiefs of Staff in London on 8th March 1949 for the provision of helicopters to evacuate any casualties resulting from a planned increase in operations against terrorists in the more remote jungle areas of Malaya.
As a result the Casevac Flight was formed on 1st April 1950 - or was it 1st May? And here is the first problem in attempting to present an accurate account: the official RAF history, AP 3140 'The Malayan Emergency. 1948-60', says 1st April; John Dowling's equally official 'RAF Helicopters - The First Twenty Years' says 1st May. April seems the best bet - the first of the Flight's three Dragonflys Mk 2 had been assembled at Seletar and flown by 22nd April and it seems more likely that the unit would have been formed before rather than over a week after this event.
The Flight moved to Changi on 22nd May 1950 and their first casevac, a British soldier who had been shot during a train ambush, was flown from the water-logged airstrip at Segamat on 14th June and their first from a jungle clearing on 19th.
The late Flt Lt K (Chips) Fry was the flight commander with Flt Lt John Dowling and Fg Off Allan Lee (later to lose his life as the only RAF pilot to fly with US helicopter units in Vietnam) as the other pilots and Flt Lt A J (Bushy) Clarke as reserve. Initially there were 13 technicians plus three attached NCOs to maintain the helicopters. Flt Lt Partridge was to become the engineer officer.
The Flight's helicopters were WF308 (ex- G-ALMC), 311 and 315. These were the only Mk 2s to be built. WF315 was the Flight's sole, surviving Mk 2 - replacement, additional and subsequent 194 Sqn Dragonflys being Mk 4s with metal blades and hydraulically powered controls (with the possible exception of an RN Mk 1 Dragonfly - VZ960 - supplied as a replacement in Feb 52).
|
Unit |
Dates |
Helicopter Types |
| Casevac Flight | 1st April 1950 to 2nd February 1953 |
Dragonfly Mk 2 Dragonfly Mk 4 |
| 194 Squadron | 2nd February1953 to 3rd June 1959 |
Dragonfly Mk 4 Sycamore Mk 14 |
| 848 RNAS | 2nd February 1953 to 10th December 1956 |
Sikorsky S-55 Whirlwind Mk 1 |
| 155 Squadron | 1st September 1954 to 3rd June 1959 |
Whirlwind Mk 4 |
| 110 Squadron | 3rd June 1959 to | Whirlwind Mk 4 Sycamore Mk 14 |
194 Squadron
The formation / disbandment dates for all helicopter units, together with
types flown are given in Table 1. This shows the Casevac Flight disbanding at
Changi on 2 Feb 53, the date that No 194 Sqn was formed at RNAS Sembawang. 194
Sqn operated Mk 4 Dragonflys until October 1954 when it began to receive
Sycamore Mk 14s, finally phasing out the last Dragonfly in July 1956. In April
1957 it was reported that the Sycamores had flown 10,000
hours - one aircraft having achieved 1,000 - and, including the Dragonflys, that
the squadron had reached a total of 15,000 hours.
194's first CO was Sqn Ldr G R G Henderson AFC and his first pilots were Flt Lts J R Dowling DFC (from the Casevac Flt and on extended tour to carry out conversion on, and further trials with, Sycamore Mk 10 WA578 which features prominently in the Association's video), G L Jacques, A J Clarke and, under training, N H J Smith DFC, C C Verry and R P Russell, M Plt G Cox and Flt Sgt D D Green. Subsequent CO's for 194 and those of 155 and 110 Sqns are listed in Table 2.
|
Unit |
Date |
Name |
| 194 Squadron | February 1953 | Sqn Ldr G R G Henderson |
| April 1955 | Sqn Ldr C R Turner | |
| September 1957 | Sqn Ldr S R Hodge | |
| January 1958 | Sqn Ldr F Barnes | |
| 155 Squadron | September 1954 | Sqn Ldr N H Jackson Smith |
| February 1955 | Sqn Ldr L L Harland | |
| March 1957 | Sqn Ldr R C Penning | |
| 110 Squadron | June 1959 | Sqn Ldr F Barnes |
848 Naval Air Sqn
In addition to 194 Sqn, which was classified as a light helicopter squadron - casevacs, tactical movement of troops, tactical reconnaissance and SAR. No 848 Naval Air Squadron with ten S-55's arrived on board HMS Perseus and disembarked at Sembawang on 8 Jan 53. 848 was to be the medium helicopter element of 303 (Helicopter) Wing whose HQ was also based at Sembawang to coordinate and control the two helicopter squadrons.
848 was commanded by Lt Cdr S H Suthers DSC DFC
, and although originally intended to stay in Malaya only until August 1954, it was to remain until December 1956 by which time its remaining S-55's were well and truly past their sell-by date. But for much of that time, and particularly until early/mid 1955, 848 provided the only real troop- and freight-lifting capability in Malaya. It pioneered pretty well all the standard short range helicopter transport roles - including paratrooping - during its early months.Table 3, which shows 'who did what' , is based on figures given in AP 3410 (mentioned earlier) but also includes data obtained from squadron records for the first half of 1959 which, for some unaccountable reason, had been omitted from the AP. Despite the corrections that have been made there is probably still some margin of error - for example it shows the Casevac Flight as having carried out casevacs only, although other accounts make it clear that other work was carried out as well - but, that said, the figures are probably as good as any you'll find elsewhere. All in all, when you consider that troop-loads were in threes, fours or fives and freight between five and eight hundred pounds at a time, they are pretty impressive totals and 848 played an equally impressive part in establishing them.
| Unit | Casevacs | Troops | Passengers | Freight Lbs (Tons) |
| Casevac Flight | 229 | |||
| 194 Squadron | 2818 | 10,853 | 11,700 | 676,598 (302.05) |
| 155 Squadron | 588 | 68,828 | 2,645 | 1,105,297 (493.71) |
| 110 Squadron | 309 | 6,430 | 693 | 168,039 (75.01) |
| 848 RNAS | 815 | 41,314 | 2,827 | 748,763 (334.28) |
| Totals | 4,759 | 127,425 | 17,865 | 2,699,327 (1,205.05) |
155 Squadron
155 Sqn was formed at Kuala Lumpur - now the main base for helicopter
operations - on 1st September 1954. At first it comprised the CO, Sqn Ldr N H
Jackson Smith DFC - who was looking forward to getting Whirlwind Mk 2's
eventually, Cpl R Richards (Airframe fitter), Cpl J
McGuinness (Supp II) and SAC A Amies (Airframe mech,). By
October the CO was joined by other ex-194 pilots: Flt Lts Verry, Hicks and
Swinton-Bland, Fg Offs Batten and McKenzie Hall and, with Verry, Swinton-Bland
and McKenzie Hall, went to Seletar on 19 Oct to begin conversion on the
Whirlwind Mk 4 - nine of which were off-loaded on 20 Oct from HMS Glory
(which had arrived on 18th with two Sycamores for 194 and five Whirlwind Mk 1's
for 848 as well). Five Whirlwinds were flown to KL on 9 Nov 54 but we'll gloss
over the subsequent problems that limited the squadron's operational capability
until well into 1955: problems that were to contribute to 848 remaining in the
theatre until December 1956.
Incidentally, in our last two newsletters information was being sought about the late Flt Sgt Patient. 155's F 540 for July 1956 refers to Flt Sgt Patient being posted in as 'a trained and experienced helicopter technician' and, coincidentally, also refers to the month as being one of 'better serviceability'.
By the end of 1956 155 and 194 Sqns had, respectively, 17 Whirlwinds and 14 Sycamores on strength but reduced demands and continuing problems with the Whirlwind led to the decision to run down 155 leaving only 194' s Sycamores in Malaya. By 1958 the run down was well under way and in September Flt Lt Tom Browning and M. Plt Fred (Pedro) Showell became the first pilots to be transferred from 155 to 194 - a process that was well under way when, in February and April 1959, there were two fatal accidents involving the Sycamores and, as a result, the remainder were grounded.
110 Squadron
FEAF's plans were quickly revised and on 3rd June 1959 194 and 155 Sqns were disbanded and 110 Sqn reformed with all of 155's remaining Whirlwinds. On 1st September 110 Sqn was officially declared to be in residence at RAAF Butterworth - having moved on 30th and 31st August - and where they were made very welcome. By the end of April 1960 the first three of, eventually, ten Sycamores arrived - their blade problems having been solved by substituting UHU for Evostick (or something like that) - and on 26th July the last Whirlwind headed south for Singapore, having been held back for a few days to help in the recovery of two Australian Sabre pilots.
On 31st July 1960 the Emergency was declared to be at an end, The next day Flt Lts Paul Gray, Bill Stevens and Mike Bailey flew three Sycamores as part of a celebratory fly-past over KL and, later, the squadron was presented with a kris. 110 was to continue supporting ground forces in the northern border areas and, later, to become involved in Brunei and elsewhere: but that, as they say, is another story.