My father, Squadron Leader William Mullen was Senior Operations Officer at Dallachy during 1944-45. He died in 1972 and I want to honour him and all the airmen who fought and died in the Dallachy Strike Wing by sharing his personal collection of photographs and some of his notes. I hope you find this weblog useful and I would be delighted if you leave a comment.From my father's notes (the full text can be downloaded here):
"Up to September 1944, RAF Station Dallachy had been a training station and had to be reorganized for operations. Our area of operations was to be the Norwegian coast. As the Senior Squadron Leader I was Senior Operations Officer and was responsible for the Operations Room.
We now settled down with four squadrons: 1 English, RAF144; 1 Australian, RAAF455; 1 Canadian, RCAF404; 1 New Zealander, RNZAF489, a real mixture if ever there was one. The squadrons, although of different nationalities, worked well together and team spirit soon developed.
Flying in general and operational flying in particular requires a certain temperament. Periods of gloom occasioned by operational losses must of necessity be short lived. Otherwise, the aggressive high spirits necessary for successful operations would soon be subdued and lost.
Life on an RAF Station in war time tends to become rather small town. One is thrown into close contact with those people with whom one works, and it is essential that those companions be friendly and congenial.
I remained at Dallachy through May 1945 when I was posted to Training Command."
1 comment:
Good to see Coastal Command on the web. My family visited the Dallachy Memorial in July 09 as well as the Control tower and taxi ways. Currently reading "Strike & Strike Again" which has great photographs of strikes in the Fiords.
Post a Comment