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Post by Dave Homewood on Jun 30, 2017 21:21:21 GMT 12
An interesting "What If" from the NEW ZEALAND HERALD, 20 JUNE 1930. Not only did we never buy any, I don't think the aircraft made it here, did it?   |
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Post by davidd on Jul 1, 2017 14:41:26 GMT 12
Quite right Dave, never seen here - the Singapore IIIs were about the closest, both in general design and age, and physically close, in that they did reach Fiji, but never reached New Zealand. However four Southampton III's such as the one illustrated, did reach Australia in 1927, and then circumnavigated it before heading back to Singapore from whence they had come. The whole "cruise" (as it was known), lasted from October 1927, when they departed Felixstowe in the UK for Singapore, until December 1928 when they finally returned to Singapore. The unit, under the command of the delightfully improbably-named Group Captain H M Cave-Browne-Cave, and including a future (early 1950s) CAS of the RNZAF, one D V (David) Carnegie (a fairly junior officer at the time), was known officially as the "Far East Flight". On its return to Singapore, the unit was promptly renamed as No. 205 Squadron, and remained at this Far Eastern bastion of Great Britain until early 1942 when it had to retreat in the face of extreme Japanese aggression. In late 1941 205 Squadron had "donated" their last four Singapore IIIs to the desperate RNZAF, as they began putting new American Catalinas into service.
David D
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